A Quasi Time-Reversible Scheme Based on Density Matrix Extrapolation on the Grassmann Manifold for Born-Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamics

Pes, Federica

Primo

;Polack, Étienne;Mazzeo, Patrizia;Dusson, Geneviève;Stamm, Benjamin;Lipparini, Filippo

2023-01-01

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Abstract

This Letter introduces the so-called Quasi Time-Reversible scheme based on Grassmann extrapolation (QTR G-Ext) of density matrices for an accurate calculation of initial guesses in Born–Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamics (BOMD) simulations. The method shows excellent results on four large molecular systems that are representative of real-life production applications, ranging from 21 to 94 atoms simulated with Kohn–Sham (KS) density functional theory surrounded with a classical environment with 6k to 16k atoms. Namely, it clearly reduces the number of self-consistent field iterations while at the same time achieving energy-conserving simulations, resulting in a considerable speed-up of BOMD simulations even when tight convergence of the KS equations is required.