Liquid State Properties from \emph{ab initio} Density Functional Theory Calculations

ORAL

Abstract

For the solid state, density functional theory (DFT) has been successfully applied to calculate material properties in a large range of materials. In the liquid state however, thermodynamic properties are calculated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in which the forces are calculated with DFT. These simulations are computationally significantly more expensive than comparable solid state calculations. We present a novel approach which does not rely on MD simulations, but instead uses Vibration-Transit (V-T) theory to make predictions of the thermodynamic properties of the liquid phase. This approach is computationally significantly less expensive than an MD simulation. The accuracy of this approach is demonstrated by a comparison to experiment.

Authors

  • Nicolas Bock

    • Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Travis Peery

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Eric Chisolm

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Giulia De Lorenzi-Venneri

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Duane Wallace

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Erik Holmstr\"{o}m

    • Instituto de Fisica, Universidad Austral, Chile
  • Raquel Lizarraga

    • Instituto de Fisica, Universidad Austral, Chile