Assessing the orbital-optimized unitary Ansatz for density cumulant theory

The previously proposed Ansatz for density cumulant theory that combines orbital-optimization and a parameterization of the 2-electron reduced density matrix cumulant in terms of unitary coupled cluster amplitudes (OUDCT) is carefully examined. Formally, we elucidate the relationship between OUDCT and orbital-optimized unitary coupled cluster theory and show the existence of near-zero denominators in the stationarity conditions for both the exact and some approximate OUDCT methods. We implement methods of the OUDCT Ansatz restricted to double excitations for numerical study, up to the fifth commutator in the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff expansion. We find that methods derived from the Ansatz beyond the previously known ODC-12 method tend to be less accurate for equilibrium properties and less reliable when attempting to describe H₂ dissociation. New developments are needed to formulate more accurate density cumulant theory variants.