1. A robust and efficient line search for self-consistent field iterations

    In an ongoing effort with Antoine Levitt our aim is to develop reliable density-functional theory (DFT) methods for computational materials design. Recently we looked into a strategy to automatically select the damping parameter for the self-consistent field iterations (SCF). Our adaptive damping approach is based on a theoretically sound quadratic …

    read more
  2. SIAM LA: Robust and efficient accelerated methods for density-functional theory

    Just one day after my talk at the SIAM Materials Science conference (blog article) I gave another talk at a SIAM meeting, this time at SIAM Linear Algebra. I was very much looking forward to participate in SIAM LA, firstly because it was the first time I attended this conference …

    read more
  3. SIAM MS: Using the density-functional toolkit to design black-box DFT methods

    After being moved by one year due to the pandemic, the last two weeks (from 17th to 28th May) the SIAM materials science conference finally took place in virtual form. Unfortunately this meant that the conference was scheduled in parallel to the SIAM Linear Algebra virtual conference, where I also …

    read more
  4. A novel black-box preconditioning strategy for high-throughput density-functional theory

    A couple of weeks ago, from 15th to 19th March, I participated in the virtual annual meeting of the German Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM). For me this meeting was the first time I presented my work to an audience of applied mathematicians with a broad background and …

    read more
  5. CESMIX TST meeting: DFTK.jl: A multidisciplinary Julia code for density-functional theory development

    These past two days I have participated in the Tri-Lab Support Team (TST) meeting of the CESMIX, the newly founded Center for the Exascale Simulation of Material Interfaces in Extreme Environments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Within the next few years the idea of the CESMIX is to develop …

    read more
  6. High-throughput density-functional theory calculations: An interdisciplinary challenge

    Last Thursday I was invited to give a virtual talk at the Scientific Computing Seminar of working group of Prof. Nicolas Gauger at TU Kaiserslautern. Since the research in Prof. Gauger's group mostly concerns topics which are not directly related to electronic structure theory and density-functional theory (DFT), I chose …

    read more
  7. Challenges and prospects of a posteriori error estimation in density-functional theory

    Last week Wednesday I was invited to give a talk at the group seminar of the AG Christoph Jacob at TU Braunschweig, Germany. Christoph was especially interested in our recent publication on a posteriori error estimation in Kohn-Sham problems and so I decided to use the opportunity to give a …

    read more
  8. Faraday Discussions: New horizons in density functional theory

    Following the submission of our paper on a posteriori error estimation in the Kohn-Sham equations a few months ago I was recently invited to present our work at the Faraday Discussions on New horizons in density functional theory. Being amongst speakers such as Kieron Burke, Andreas Savin or Weitao Yang …

    read more
  9. Black-box inhomogeneous preconditioning for self-consistent field iterations in density-functional theory

    For the past half a year or so Antoine Levitt and myself have been looking at a particular tricky busyness for solid-state density-functional theory (DFT) calculations, namely how to design efficient self-consistent field (SCF) schemes for large inhomogeneous systems. I have already previously reported on this matter in a short …

    read more
  10. A posteriori error estimation for the non-self-consistent Kohn-Sham equations

    After about a year of work on the density-functional toolkit (DFTK) we finally started using the code for some new science. Given the mathematics background of the CERMICS the first two DFTK-related articles were not so much about large-scale applications, but rather deal some fundamental questions of Kohn-Sham density-functional theory …

    read more