Combining stochastic density functional theory with deep potential molecular dynamics to study warm dense matter

Abstract

In traditional finite-temperature Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KSDFT), the well-known orbitals wall restricts the use of first-principles molecular dynamics methods at extremely high temperatures. However, stochastic density functional theory (SDFT) can overcome the limitation. Recently, SDFT and its related mixed stochastic-deterministic density functional theory, based on the plane-wave basis set, have been implemented in the first-principles electronic structure software ABACUS [Phys. Rev. B 106, 125132(2022)]. In this study, we combine SDFT with the Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD) method to investigate systems with temperatures ranging from a few tens of eV to 1000 eV. Importantly, we train machine-learning-based interatomic models using the SDFT data and employ these deep potential models to simulate large-scale systems with long trajectories. Consequently, we compute and analyze the structural properties, dynamic properties, and transport coefficients of warm dense matter. The abovementioned methods offer a new approach with first-principles accuracy to tackle various properties of warm dense matter.