How Accurate Are Static Polarizability Predictions from Density Functional Theory? An Assessment over 132 Species at Equilibrium Geometry

07 June 2018, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Static polarizabilities are the first response of the electron density to electric fields, and are therefore important for predicting intermolecular and molecule-field interactions. They also offer a global measure of the accuracy of the treatment of excited states by density functionals in a formally exact manner. We have developed a database of benchmark static polarizabilities for 132 small species at equilibrium geometry, using coupled cluster theory through triple excitations (extrapolated to the complete basis set limit), for the purpose of developing and assessing density functionals. The performance of 56 popular and recent functionals are also assessed, which indicates that double hybrid functionals perform the best, having RMS errors in the range of 2.5-3.8% . Many hybrid functionals also give quite reasonable estimates with 4-5% RMSE. A few meta-GGAs like mBEEF and MVS yield performance comparable to hybrids, indicating potential for improved excited state predictions relative to typical local functionals. Some recent functionals however are found to be prone to catastrophic failure (possibly as a consequence of overparameterization), indicating a need for caution in applying these.

Keywords

DFT
Density Functional Theory
Molecular properties
Double Hybrid Density Functionals
Polarizabilities
Electronic structure theory
Electric field response

Supplementary materials

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geometries
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supporting information
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