Machine Learning Accurate Exchange and Correlation Functionals of the Electronic Density

18 June 2020, Version 3
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Density Functional Theory (DFT) is the standard formalism to study the electronic structure
of matter at the atomic scale. In Kohn-Sham DFT simulations, the balance between accuracy
and computational cost depends on the choice of exchange and correlation functional, which only
exists in approximate form. Here we propose a framework to create density functionals using
supervised machine learning, termed NeuralXC. These machine-learned functionals are designed to
lift the accuracy of baseline functionals towards that are provided by more accurate methods while
maintaining their efficiency. We show that the functionals learn a meaningful representation of the
physical information contained in the training data, making them transferable across systems. A
NeuralXC functional optimized for water outperforms other methods characterizing bond breaking
and excels when comparing against experimental results. This work demonstrates that NeuralXC
is a first step towards the design of a universal, highly accurate functional valid for both molecules
and solids.

Keywords

Neural Networks
Molecular Dynamics
Density Functional Theory

Supplementary materials

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Machine Learning Density Functionals SI
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