The core part of the program system COLUMBUS allows highly efficient calculations using variational multireference (MR) methods in the framework of configuration interaction with single and double excitations (MR-CISD) and averaged quadratic coupled-cluster calculations (MR-AQCC), based on uncontracted sets of configurations and the graphical unitary group approach (GUGA). The availability of analytic MR-CISD and MR-AQCC energy gradients and analytic nonadiabatic couplings for MR-CISD enables exciting applications including, e.g., investigations of π-conjugated biradicaloid compounds, calculations of multitudes of excited states, development of diabatization procedures, and furnishing the electronic structure information for on-the-fly surface nonadiabatic dynamics. With fully variational uncontracted spin-orbit MRCI, COLUMBUS provides a unique possibility of performing high-level calculations on compounds containing heavy atoms up to lanthanides and actinides. Crucial for carrying out all of these calculations effectively is the availability of an efficient parallel code for the CI step. Configuration spaces of several billion in size now can be treated quite routinely on standard parallel computer clusters. Emerging developments in COLUMBUS, including the all configuration mean energy multiconfiguration self-consistent field method and the graphically contracted function method, promise to allow practically unlimited configuration space dimensions. Spin density based on the GUGA approach, analytic spin-orbit energy gradients, possibilities for local electron correlation MR calculations, development of general interfaces for nonadiabatic dynamics, and MRCI linear vibronic coupling models conclude this overview.

A comprehensive theoretical study of the electronically excited states in complexes between tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) and three aromatic electron donors, benzene, naphthalene and anthracene, was performed with a focus on charge transfer (CT) transitions. The results show that the algebraic diagrammatic construction method to second order (ADC(2)) provides excellent possibilities for reliable calculations of CT states. Significant improvements in the accuracy of the computed transition energies are obtained by using the scaled opposite-spin (SOS) variant of ADC(2). Solvent effects were examined on the basis of the conductor-like screening model (COSMO) which has been implemented recently in the ADC(2) method. The dielectric constant and the refractive index of dichloromethane have been chosen in the COSMO calculations to compare with experimental solvatochromic effects. The computation of optimized ground state geometries and enthalpies of formation has been performed at the second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) level. By comparison with experimental data and with high-level coupled-cluster methods including explicitly correlated (F12) wave functions, the importance of the SOS approach is demonstrated for the ground state as well. In the benzene–TCNE complex, the two lowest electronic excitations are of CT character whereas in the naphthalene and anthracene TCNE complexes three low-lying CT states are observed. As expected, they are strongly stabilized by the solvent. Geometry optimization in the lowest excited state allowed the calculation of fluorescence transitions. Solvent effects lead to a zero gap between S₁ and S₀ for the anthracene–TCNE complex. Therefore, in the series of benzene–TCNE to anthracene a change from a radiative to a nonradiative decay mechanism to the ground state is to be expected.

Pyrene fluorescence after a high-energy electronic excitation exhibits a prominent band shoulder not present after excitation at low energies. The standard assignment of this shoulder as a non-Kasha emission from the second-excited state (S₂) has been recently questioned. To elucidate this issue, we simulated the fluorescence of pyrene using two different theoretical approaches based on vertical convolution and nonadiabatic dynamics with nuclear ensembles. To conduct the necessary nonadiabatic dynamics simulations with high-lying electronic states and deal with fluorescence timescales of about 100 ns of this large molecule, we developed new computational protocols. The results from both approaches confirm that the band shoulder is, in fact, due to S₂ emission. We show that the non-Kasha behavior is a dynamic-equilibrium effect not caused by a metastable S₂ minimum. However, it requires considerable vibrational energy, which can only be achieved in collisionless regimes after transitions into highly excited states. This strict condition explains why the S₂ emission was not observed in some experiments.