Accurate Helium-Benzene Potential: from CCSD(T) to Gaussian Process Regression

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Akram, Shahzad, Paul, Sutirtha, Kovacs, Collin, Maroulas, Vasileios, Del Maestro, Adrian, Vogiatzis, Konstantinos D.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Akram, Shahzad
Paul, Sutirtha
Kovacs, Collin
Maroulas, Vasileios
Del Maestro, Adrian
Vogiatzis, Konstantinos D.
author_facet Akram, Shahzad
Paul, Sutirtha
Kovacs, Collin
Maroulas, Vasileios
Del Maestro, Adrian
Vogiatzis, Konstantinos D.
contents The accurate modeling of non-covalent interactions between helium and graphitic materials is important for understanding quantum phenomena in reduced dimensions, with the helium-benzene complex serving as the fundamental prototype. However, creating a quantitatively reliable potential energy surface (PES) for this weakly bound system remains a significant computational challenge. In this work, we present a comprehensive, multi-level investigation of the He-Bz interaction, establishing benchmark energies using high-level coupled-cluster singles-and-doubles with perturbative triples (CCSD(T)) methods extrapolated to the complete basis set limit and assessing higher-order (CCSDT(Q)) contributions. We use symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) to benchmark it against CCSD(T) and to decompose the interaction into its physical components-confirming it is dominated by a balance between dispersion and exchange-repulsion. A continuous, three-dimensional PES is constructed from discrete ab initio points using multifidelity Gaussian process regression that combines density functional theory results with sparse coupled-cluster energies. The result is a highly accurate PES with sub-cm-1 accuracy that obeys physical laws. This new PES is applied to path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations to study the solvation of 4He atoms on benzene at low temperatures. Our PIMC results reveal qualitatively different solvation behavior, particularly in the filling of adsorption layers, when compared to simulations using commonly employed empirical Lennard-Jones potentials. This work provides a benchmark PES essential for accurate many-body simulations of helium on larger polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons towards graphene.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_02166
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Accurate Helium-Benzene Potential: from CCSD(T) to Gaussian Process Regression
Akram, Shahzad
Paul, Sutirtha
Kovacs, Collin
Maroulas, Vasileios
Del Maestro, Adrian
Vogiatzis, Konstantinos D.
Chemical Physics
The accurate modeling of non-covalent interactions between helium and graphitic materials is important for understanding quantum phenomena in reduced dimensions, with the helium-benzene complex serving as the fundamental prototype. However, creating a quantitatively reliable potential energy surface (PES) for this weakly bound system remains a significant computational challenge. In this work, we present a comprehensive, multi-level investigation of the He-Bz interaction, establishing benchmark energies using high-level coupled-cluster singles-and-doubles with perturbative triples (CCSD(T)) methods extrapolated to the complete basis set limit and assessing higher-order (CCSDT(Q)) contributions. We use symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) to benchmark it against CCSD(T) and to decompose the interaction into its physical components-confirming it is dominated by a balance between dispersion and exchange-repulsion. A continuous, three-dimensional PES is constructed from discrete ab initio points using multifidelity Gaussian process regression that combines density functional theory results with sparse coupled-cluster energies. The result is a highly accurate PES with sub-cm-1 accuracy that obeys physical laws. This new PES is applied to path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations to study the solvation of 4He atoms on benzene at low temperatures. Our PIMC results reveal qualitatively different solvation behavior, particularly in the filling of adsorption layers, when compared to simulations using commonly employed empirical Lennard-Jones potentials. This work provides a benchmark PES essential for accurate many-body simulations of helium on larger polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons towards graphene.
title Accurate Helium-Benzene Potential: from CCSD(T) to Gaussian Process Regression
topic Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02166