We have derived a new method which allows to compute the full and the Pauli reference kinetic potentials for atoms and molecules in a real space representation. This is done by applying the optimized effective potential (OEP) method to {the} Kohn-Sham non-interacting kinetic energy expression. Additionally, we have also derived a simplified OEP variant based on the common energy denominator approximation which has proven to give much more stable and robust results than the original OEP one. Moreover, we have also proved that at the solution point our approach is formally equivalent to the commonly used Bartolotti-Acharya formula.
One-particle Greens function methods can model molecular and solid spectra at zero or non-zero temperatures. One-particle Greens functions directly provide electronic energies and one-particle properties, such as dipole moment. However, the evaluation of two-particle properties, such as $langle{S^2}rangle$ and $langle{N^2}rangle$ can be challenging, because they require a solution of the computationally expensive Bethe--Salpeter equation to find two-particle Greens functions. We demonstrate that the solution of the Bethe--Salpeter equation can be complitely avoided. Applying the thermodynamic Hellmann--Feynman theorem to self-consistent one-particle Greens function methods, we derive expressions for two-particle density matrices in a general case and provide explicit expressions for GF2 and GW methods. Such density matrices can be decomposed into an antisymmetrized product of correlated one-electron density matrices and the two-particle electronic cumulant of the density matrix. Cumulant expressions reveal a deviation from ensemble representability for GW, explaining its known deficiencies. We analyze the temperature dependence of $langle{S^2}rangle$ and $langle{N^2}rangle$ for a set of small closed-shell systems. Interestingly, both GF2 and GW show a non-zero spin contamination and a non-zero fluctuation of the number of particles for closed-shell systems at the zero-temperature limit.
In orbital-free density functional theory the kinetic potential (KP), the functional derivative of the kinetic energy density functional, appears in the Euler equation for the electron density and may be more amenable to simple approximations. We study properties of two solid-state systems, Al and Si, using two nonlocal KPs that gave good results for atoms. Very accurate results are found for Al, but results for Si are much less satisfactory, illustrating the general need for a better treatment of extended covalent systems. A different integration pathway in the KP formalism may prove useful in attacking this fundamental problem.
We provide a pedagogical introduction to the two main variants of real-space quantum Monte Carlo methods for electronic-structure calculations: variational Monte Carlo (VMC) and diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC). Assuming no prior knowledge on the subject, we review in depth the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm used in VMC for sampling the square of an approximate wave function, discussing details important for applications to electronic systems. We also review in detail the more sophisticated DMC algorithm within the fixed-node approximation, introduced to avoid the infamous Fermionic sign problem, which allows one to sample a more accurate approximation to the ground-state wave function. Throughout this review, we discuss the statistical methods used for evaluating expectation values and statistical uncertainties. In particular, we show how to estimate nonlinear functions of expectation values and their statistical uncertainties.
Machine learning of atomic-scale properties is revolutionizing molecular modelling, making it possible to evaluate inter-atomic potentials with first-principles accuracy, at a fraction of the costs. The accuracy, speed and reliability of machine-learning potentials, however, depends strongly on the way atomic configurations are represented, i.e. the choice of descriptors used as input for the machine learning method. The raw Cartesian coordinates are typically transformed in fingerprints, or symmetry functions, that are designed to encode, in addition to the structure, important properties of the potential-energy surface like its invariances with respect to rotation, translation and permutation of like atoms. Here we discuss automatic protocols to select a number of fingerprints out of a large pool of candidates, based on the correlations that are intrinsic to the training data. This procedure can greatly simplify the construction of neural network potentials that strike the best balance between accuracy and computational efficiency, and has the potential to accelerate by orders of magnitude the evaluation of Gaussian Approximation Potentials based on the Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions kernel. We present applications to the construction of neural network potentials for water and for an Al-Mg-Si alloy, and to the prediction of the formation energies of small organic molecules using Gaussian process regression.