Analyzing XC functionals for electronic structure calculations at WDM parameters

In this presentation we discuss the results of the analysis of the accuracy of the commonly used exchange-correlation (XC) functionals for warm dense matter simulation [1,2]. The analysis is performed by comparing the path-integral quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) data with KS-DFT results. The relative deviation of the total density from the reference data is reported for different XC functionals in the case of the inhomogeneous electron gas. Furthermore, a new methodology for the investigation of the non-linear static density response WDM based on KS-DFT method is presented [3]. The results are verified by comparing to the QMC data when thermal temperature is equal to the Fermi temperature. New results for partially and strongly degenerate electrons are presented. Finally, we present the results of the analysis of the electronic local field correction as computed using various XC functionals. By comparing the data to the exact QMC results, we are able to understand the effect of the thermal excitations on XC functional.

[1] Z. Moldabekov, T.Dornheim, M. Böhme, J. Vorberger, A. Cangi, The Journal of Chemical Physics 155, 124116 (2021).
[2] Z. Moldabekov, T.Dornheim, J. Vorberger, A. Cangi, Phys. Rev. B 105, 035134 (2022).
[3] Z.Moldabekov, T. Dornheim, J. Vorberger, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (2022).