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Bridging the gap between density functional theory and quantum materials

The focus on quantum materials has raised questions on the fitness of density functional theory for the description of the basic physics of such strongly correlated systems. Recent studies point to another possibility: the perceived limitations are often not a failure of the density functional theory per se, but rather a failure to break symmetry.

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Fig. 1: Three types of possible local motif μlocal characterizing the microscopic structure of phases.

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Acknowledgements

A.Z. is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division and US National Science Foundation NSF-DMR-DMREF.

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Correspondence to Alex Zunger.

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Zunger, A. Bridging the gap between density functional theory and quantum materials. Nat Comput Sci 2, 529–532 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-022-00323-z

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