In this work, we have implemented an orbital-free density functional theory (OF-DFT) solver using the finite element method. In OF-DFT, the total ground state energy is minimized directly with respect to the electron density, rather than via orbitals like in the standard Kohn-Sham approach. For this to be possible, one needs an approximation of a universal density functional of the non-interacting kinetic energy. Presently available approximations allow for computation with very low computational expense, but which gives inaccurate energies. A stable OF-DFT code can be used as a testbed for new kinetic energy functionals and provide the necessary tool for investigating the accuracy of OF-DFT calculations for complex systems. We have implemented Thomas-Fermi theory with and without nuclear cusp condition, as well as additional exchange terms of Dirac and Amaldi. The program uses an extended version of the steepest descent in order to find the minimizing density in the variational principle. Our results include convergence tests for the hydrogen atom, weak bonding in the H2 molecule, and accurate results for the lightest noble gases (He, Ne, Ar). For heavier atoms (Kr, Xe, Rn), the results are less accurate. In addition, we consider hydrogen in the simple cubic structure without the cusp condition, which is a first attempt to use the code for periodic systems. Lastly, we discuss some possible improvements for the iterative process towards the minimizing density, as well as other possible directions for future development.

Density functional theory (DFT) is not only an accurate but also a widely used theory for describing the quantum-mechanical electronic structure of matter. In this approach, the intractable problem of interacting electrons is simplified to a tractable problem of non-interacting electrons moving in an effective potential. Even with this simplification, DFT remains extremely computationally expensive. In particular, DFT scales cubically with respect to the number of atoms, which restricts the size of systems that can be studied. Orbital free density functional theory (OF-DFT) represents a simplification of DFT applicable to metallic systems that behave like a free-electron gas. Current implementations of OF-DFT employ the plane-wave basis, the global nature of the basis prevents the efficient use of modern high-performance computer archi- tectures. We present a real-space formulation and higher-order finite-difference implementation of periodic Orbital-free Density Functional Theory (OF-DFT). Specifically, utilizing a local reformulation of the electrostatic and kernel terms, we develop a gener- alized framework suitable for performing OF-DFT simulations with different variants of the electronic kinetic energy. In particular, we develop a self-consistent field (SCF) type fixed-point method for calculations involving linear-response kinetic energy functionals. In doing so, we make the calculation of the electronic ground-state and forces on the nuclei amenable to computations that altogether scale linearly with the number of atoms. We develop a parallel implementation of our method using Portable, Extensible Toolkit for scientific computations (PETSc) suite of data structures and routines. The communication between processors is handled via the Message Passing Interface(MPI). We implement this formulation using the finite-difference discretization, us- ing which we demonstrate that higher-order finite-differences can achieve relatively large convergence rates with respect to mesh-size in both the energies and forces. Additionally, we establish that the fixed-point iteration converges rapidly, and that it can be further accelerated using extrapolation techniques like Anderson mixing. We verify the accuracy of our results by comparing the energies and forces with plane-wave methods for selected examples, one of which is the vacancy formation energy in Aluminum. Overall, we demonstrate that the proposed formulation and implementation is an attractive choice for performing OF-DFT calculations.

Die Habilitationsschrift beinhaltet die Vorstellung eines neuen mathematischen Formalismus zur Erstellung approximativer Funktionale in der Dichtefunktionaltheorie. Im Gegensatz zu Dichtefunktionalen hängen Bifunktionale von zwei Variablen ab, nämlich der Dichte und des Potentials, welches als formale Funktionalableitung behandelt wird und somit nicht als Funktional der Dichte bekannt ist. Neben der Vorstellung des mathematischen Formalismus werden zwei Anwendungsgebiete vorgestellt: orbitalfreie Dichtefunktionaltheorie und die Entwicklung neuer Austauschkorrelationsfunktionale für konventionelle Kohn-Sham-Dichtefunktionaltheorie.