# Next generation extended Lagrangian first principles molecular dynamics

## TL;DR

This paper introduces an advanced extended Lagrangian approach for first principles molecular dynamics that improves stability, accuracy, and efficiency over previous methods, enabling larger time steps and better handling of slow convergence systems.

## Contribution

It formulates a generalized extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics method applicable to density functional theory, with enhanced stability and efficiency, especially for challenging materials.

## Key findings

- Achieves second-order accuracy in time step size.
- Maintains energy conservation without iterative ground state optimization.
- Enables larger time steps for slow-converging systems.

## Abstract

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics [Phys. Rev. Lett., ${\bf 100}$, 123004 (2008)] is formulated for general Hohenberg-Kohn density functional theory and compared to the extended Lagrangian framework of first principles molecular dynamics by Car and Parrinello [Phys. Rev. Lett. ${\bf 55}$, 2471 (1985)]. It is shown how extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics overcomes several shortcomings of regular, direct Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, while improving or maintaining important features of Car-Parrinello simulations. The accuracy of the electronic degrees of freedom in extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, with respect to the exact Born-Oppenheimer solution, is of second order in the size of the integration time step and of fourth order in the potential energy surface. Improved stability over recent formulations of extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics is achieved by generalizing the theory to finite temperature ensembles, using fractional occupation numbers in the calculation of the inner-product kernel of the extended harmonic oscillator that appears as a preconditioner in the electronic equations of motion. Materials systems that normally exhibit slow self-consistent field convergence can be simulated using integration time steps of the same order as in direct Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, but without the requirement of an iterative, non-linear electronic ground state optimization prior to the force evaluations and without a systematic drift in the total energy. In combination with proposed low-rank and on-the-fly updates of the kernel, this formulation provides an efficient and general framework for quantum based Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations.