arXiv subjects

Chandra Shahi

Publications and source records attributed to Chandra Shahi.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Balanced and broadly-normed meta-generalized gradient approximation

Conventional semi-local density functional approximations for the exchange-correlation energy systematically underestimate fundamental band gaps. Advanced meta-generalized gradient approximations (meta-GGAs) can partially overcome this limitation through their orbital dependence via the kinetic energy density. In principle, the flexible meta-GGA form should allow for balanced performance across diverse properties. However, atomization energies, reaction barrier heights, and lattice constants, as well as band gaps, exhibit different sensitivities to the large parameter space of meta-GGA functionals. In this work, we explore the space of appropriate norms that guide the r$^2$SCAN-type functional construction through the interpolation function connecting two fundamental paradigms: the one-electron limit and the uniform electron gas limit. We introduce local modifications to a strongly-smoothed interpolation function and investigate their impact on functional performance. To further probe the limits of the meta-GGA framework, we include spin-unpolarized bonded systems among the set of norms. The resulting bonded-norm bn-r$^2$SCAN meta-GGA achieves balance: band-gap predictions approaching the accuracy of the ultra-nonlocal LAK meta-GGA and lattice constants of nearly r$^2$SCAN accuracy.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

The isostructural alpha-gamma phase transition in cerium from the perspective of meta-generalized gradient approximations

Meta-generalized gradient approximations (meta-GGAs) on the third rung of the functional hierarchy are gaining increasing relevance for the electronic structure. Meta-GGAs are constructed from numerous ingredients including the orbital kinetic energy density that make them more flexible than generalized gradient approximations (GGAs) including the heavily used PBE-GGA. Still, most meta-GGAs cope with the expected limitations of a semilocal density functional when band gaps or localization of electrons are needed. On the other hand, meta-GGAs are implicit functionals of the orbitals. This feature resembles hybrid density functionals with exact exchange. Efforts in recent years demonstrate that some meta-GGAs can rise beyond the accuracy of semilocal approximation when band gaps are computed. Cerium is an ideal testbed to challenge some recent meta-GGAs. Cerium shows an isostructural alpha - gamma phase transition with delocalized and localized f electrons in each phase, respectively. Since the phonon entropy term was found negligible in the alpha - gamma phase transition of cerium by accurate experiments, all changes in the transition are driven by electronic correlation. The correlation of f electron systems is hardly captured by semilocal approximations but the recent LAK meta-GGA with ultranonlocality steps out of the framework of conventional semilocal density functionals and delivers spectacular accuracy for the phase transition of cerium. LAK and further meta-GGAs inspired by the success of LAK can open a forefront of meta-GGAs for quantum materials with localized electrons.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Effect of Strain on the Band Gap of Monolayer MoS$_2$

Monolayer molybdenum disulfide ($\mathrm{MoS_2}$) under strain has many interesting properties and possible applications in technology. A recent experimental study examined the effect of strain on the bandgap of monolayer $\mathrm{MoS_2}$ on a mildly curved graphite surface, reporting that under biaxial strain with a Poisson's ratio of 0.44, the bandgap decreases at a rate of 400 meV/\% strain. In this work, we performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations for a free-standing $\mathrm{MoS_2}$ monolayer, using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) PBE, the hybrid functional HSE06, and many-body perturbation theory with the GW approximation using PBE wavefunctions (G0W0@PBE). For the unstrained monolayer, we found a standard level of agreement for the bandgap between theory and experiment. For biaxial strain at the experimental Poisson's ratio, we found that the bandgap decreases at rates of 63 meV/\% strain (PBE), 73 meV/\% strain (HSE06), and 43 meV/\% strain (G0W0@PBE), which are significantly smaller than the experimental rate. We also found that PBE predicts a similarly smaller rate (90 meV/\% strain) for a different Poisson's ratio of 0.25. Spin-orbit correction (SOC) has little effect on the gap or its strain dependence. The strong disagreement between theory and experiment may reflect an unexpectedly strong effect of the substrate on the strain dependence of the gap. Additionally, we observed a transition from a direct to an indirect bandgap under strain, and (under an equal biaxial strain of 10\%) a semiconductor-to-metal transition, consistent with previous theoretical work.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Unconventional Error Cancellation Explains the Success of Hartree-Fock Density Functional Theory for Barrier Heights

Energy barriers, which control the rates of chemical reactions, are seriously underestimated by computationally-efficient semi-local approximations for the exchange-correlation energy. The accuracy of a semi-local density functional approximation is strongly boosted for reaction barrier heights by evaluating that approximation non-self-consistently on Hartree-Fock electron densities, as known for about 30 years. The conventional explanation is that Hartree-Fock theory yields the more accurate density. This article presents a benchmark Kohn-Sham inversion of accurate coupled-cluster densities for the reaction H$_2$ + F $\rightarrow$ HHF $\rightarrow$ H + HF, and finds a strong, understandable cancellation between positive (excessively over-corrected) density-driven and large negative functional-driven errors (expected from stretched radical bonds in the transition state) within this Hartree-Fock density functional theory. This confirms earlier conclusions [Kaplan et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput. 19, 532--543 (2023)] based on 76 barrier heights and three less reliable, but less expensive, fully-nonlocal density-functional proxies for the exact density.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

Symmetry Breaking with the SCAN Density Functional Describes Strong Correlation in the Singlet Carbon Dimer

The SCAN (strongly constrained and appropriately normed) meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA), which satisfies all 17 exact constraints that a meta-GGA can satisfy, accurately describes equilibrium bonds that are normally correlated. With symmetry breaking, it also accurately describes some sd equilibrium bonds that are strongly correlated. While sp equilibrium bonds are nearly always normally correlated, the C2 singlet ground state is known to be a rare case of strong correlation in an sp equilibrium bond. Earlier work that calculated atomization energies of the molecular sequence B2, C2, O2, and F2 in the local spin density approximation (LSDA), the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) GGA, and the SCAN meta-GGA, without symmetry breaking in the molecule, found that only SCAN was accurate enough to reveal an anomalous under-binding for C2. This work shows that spin symmetry breaking in singlet C2, the appearance of net up- and down-spin densities on opposite sides (not ends) of the bond, corrects that under-binding, with a small SCAN atomization-energy error more like that of the other three molecules, suggesting that symmetry-breaking with an advanced density functional might reliably describe strong correlation. This article also discusses some general aspects of symmetry breaking, and the insights into strong correlation that symmetry-breaking can bring.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

Understanding density driven errors for reaction barrier heights

Delocalization errors, such as charge-transfer and some self-interaction errors, plague computationally-efficient and otherwise-accurate density functional approximations (DFAs). Evaluating a semi-local DFA non-self-consistently on the Hartree-Fock (HF) density is often recommended as a computationally cheap remedy for delocalization errors. For sophisticated meta-GGAs like SCAN, this approach can achieve remarkable accuracy. When this HF-DFT (or DFA@HF) significantly improves over the DFA, it is often presumed that the HF density is more accurate than the self-consistent DFA density. By applying the metrics of density-corrected density functional theory (DFT), we show that HF-DFT works for barrier heights by making a localizing charge transfer error or density over-correction, thereby producing a somewhat-reliable cancellation of density- and functional-driven errors for the energy. A quantitative analysis of the charge transfer errors in a few transition states confirms this trend. We do not have the exact functional and exact densities that are needed to evaluate the exact density- and functional-driven errors for the large BH76 database of barrier heights. Instead, we have identified and used three non-local proxy functionals (the SCAN 50% global hybrid, the range-separated hybrid LC-$\omega$PBE, and SCAN-FLOSIC) and their self-consistent densities. These functionals yield reasonably accurate self-consistent barrier heights, and their self-consistent total energies are nearly piecewise linear in fractional electron number - two important points of similarity to the exact functional. We argue that density-driven errors of the energy in a self-consistent density functional calculation are second-order in the density error, and that large density-driven errors arise primarily from incorrect electron transfers over length scales larger than the diameter of an atom.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2020

Self-Interaction Correction in Water-Ion Clusters

We study the importance of self-interaction errors in density functional approximations for various water-ion clusters. We have employed the Fermi-Löwdin orbital self-interaction correction (FLOSIC) method in conjunction with LSDA, PBE, and SCAN to describe binding energies of hydrogen-bonded water-ion clusters, \textit{i.e.}, water-hydronium, water-hydroxide, water-halide, as well as non-hydrogen-bonded water-alkali clusters. In the hydrogen-bonded water-ion clusters, the building blocks are linked by hydrogen atoms, although the links are much stronger and longer-ranged than the normal hydrogen bonds between water molecules, because the monopole on the ion interacts with both permanent and induced dipoles on the water molecules. We find that self-interaction errors overbind the hydrogen-bonded water-ion clusters and that FLOSIC reduces the error and brings the binding energies into closer agreement with higher-level calculations. The non-hydrogen-bonded water-alkali clusters are not significantly affected by self-interaction errors. Self-interaction corrected PBE predicts the lowest mean unsigned error in binding energies ($\leq$ 50 meV/\ce{H2O}) for hydrogen-bonded water-ion clusters. Self-interaction errors are also largely dependent on the cluster size, and FLOSIC does not accurately capture the subtle variation in all clusters, indicating the need for further refinement.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2020

A Step in the Direction of Resolving the Paradox of Perdew-Zunger Self-interaction Correction. II. Gauge Consistency of the Energy Density at Three Levels of Approximation

The Perdew-Zunger(PZ) self-interaction correction (SIC) was designed to correct the one-electron limit of any approximate density functional for the exchange-correlation (xc) energy, while yielding no correction to the exact functional. Unfortunately, it spoils the slowly-varying-in-space limits of the uncorrected approximate functionals, where those functionals are right by construction. The right limits can be restored by locally scaling down the energy density of the PZ SIC in many-electron regions, but then a spurious correction to the exact functional would be found unless the self-Hartree and exact self-xc terms of the PZ SIC energy density were expressed in the same gauge. Only the local density approximation satisfies the same-gauge condition for the energy density, which explains why the recent local-scaling SIC (LSIC) is found here to work excellently for atoms and molecules only with this basic approximation, and not with the more advanced generalized gradient approximations (GGAs) and meta-GGAs, which lose the Hartree gauge via simplifying integrations by parts. The transformation of energy density that achieves the Hartree gauge for the exact xc functional can also be applied to approximate functionals. Doing so leads to a simple scaled-down self-interaction (sdSIC) correction that is typically much more accurate than PZ SIC in tests for many molecular properties (including equilibrium bond lengths). The present work shows unambiguously that the largest errors of PZ SIC applied to standard functionals at three levels of approximation can be removed by restoring their correct slowly-varying-density limits. It also confirms the relevance of these limits to atoms and molecules.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2019

Stretched or noded orbital densities and self-interaction correction in density functional theory

Semi-local approximations to the density functional for the exchange-correlation energy of a many-electron system necessarily fail for lobed one-electron densities, including not only the familiar stretched densities but also the less familiar but closely-related noded ones. The Perdew-Zunger (PZ) self-interaction correction (SIC) to a semi-local approximation makes that approximation exact for all one-electron ground- or excited-state densities and accurate for stretched bonds. When the minimization of the PZ total energy is made over real localized orbitals, the orbital densities can be noded, leading to energy errors in many-electron systems. Minimization over complex localized orbitals yields nodeless orbital densities, which reduce but typically do not eliminate the SIC errors of atomization energies. Other errors of PZ SIC remain, attributable to the loss of the exact constraints and appropriate norms that the semi-local approximations satisfy, and suggesting the need for a generalized SIC. These conclusions are supported by calculations for one-electron densities, and for many-electron molecules. While PZ SIC raises and improves the energy barriers of standard generalized gradient approximations (GGA's) and meta-GGA's, it reduces and often worsens the atomization energies of molecules. Thus PZ SIC raises the energy more as the nodality of the valence localized orbitals increases from atoms to molecules to transition states. PZ SIC is applied here in particular to the SCAN meta-GGA, for which the correlation part is already self-interaction-free. That property makes SCAN a natural first candidate for a generalized SIC.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2018

Origin of the size-dependence of the equilibrium van der Waals binding between nanostructures

Nanostructures can be bound together at equilibrium by the van der Waals (vdW) effect, a small but ubiquitous many-body attraction that presents challenges to density functional theory. How does the binding energy depend upon the size or number of atoms in one of a pair of identical nanostructures? To answer this question, we treat each nanostructure properly as a whole object, not as a collection of atoms. Our calculations start from an accurate static dipole polarizability for each considered nanostructure, and an accurate equilibrium center-to-center distance for the pair (the latter from experiment, or from the vdW-DF-cx functional). We consider the competition in each term $-C_{2k}/d^{2k}$ ($k=3, 4, 5$) of the long-range vdW series for the interaction energy, between the size dependence of the vdW coefficient $C_{2k}$ and that of the $2k$-th power of the center-to-center distance $d$. The damping of these vdW terms can be negligible, but in any case it does not affect the size dependence for a given term in the absence of non-vdW binding. To our surprise, the vdW energy can be size-independent for quasi-spherical nanoclusters bound to one another by vdW interaction, even with strong nonadditivity of the vdW coefficient, as demonstrated for fullerenes. We also show that, for low-dimensional systems, the vdW interaction yields the strongest size-dependence, in stark contrast to that of fullerenes. We illustrate this with parallel planar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Other cases are between, as shown by sodium clusters.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Decoupling of a Neutron Interferometer from Temperature Gradients

Neutron interferometry enables precision measurements that are typically operated within elaborate, multi-layered facilities which provide substantial shielding from environmental noise. These facilities are necessary to maintain the coherence requirements in a perfect crystal neutron interferometer which is extremely sensitive to local environmental conditions such as temperature gradients across the interferometer, external vibrations, and acoustic waves. The ease of operation and breadth of applications of perfect crystal neutron interferometry would greatly benefit from a mode of operation which relaxes these stringent isolation requirements. Here, the INDEX Collaboration and National Institute of Standards and Technology demonstrates the functionality of a neutron interferometer in vacuum and characterize the use of a compact vacuum chamber enclosure as a means to isolate the interferometer from spatial temperature gradients and time-dependent temperature fluctuations. The vacuum chamber is found to have no depreciable effect on the performance of the interferometer (contrast) while improving system stability, thereby showing that it is feasible to replace large temperature isolation and control systems with a compact vacuum enclosure for perfect crystal neutron interferometry.

physics.ins-det↗