A Parallel Orbital-Updating Approach for Electronic Structure Calculations

In this paper, we propose an orbital iteration based parallel approach for electronic structure calculations. This approach is based on our understanding of the single-particle equations of independent particles that move in an effective potential. With this new approach, the solution of the single-particle equation is reduced to some solutions of independent linear algebraic systems and a small scale algebraic problem. It is demonstrated by our numerical experiments that this new approach is quite efficient for full-potential calculations for a class of molecular systems.Comment: 22pages, 13 figures, 6 table

Novel linear algebraic theory and one-hundred-million-atom quantum material simulations on the K computer

The present paper gives a review of our recent progress and latest results for novel linear-algebraic algorithms and its application to large-scale quantum material simulations or electronic structure calculations. The algorithms are Krylov-subspace (iterative) solvers for generalized shifted linear equations, in the form of (zS-H)x=b,in stead of conventional generalized eigen-value equation. The method was implemented in our order-$N$ calculation code ELSES (http://www.elses.jp/) with modelled systems based on ab initio calculations. The code realized one-hundred-million-atom, or 100-nm-scale, quantum material simulations on the K computer in a high parallel efficiency with up to all the built-in processor cores. The present paper also explains several methodological aspects, such as use of XML files and 'novice' mode for general users. A sparse matrix data library in our real problems (http://www.elses.jp/matrix/) was prepared. Internal eigen-value problem is discussed as a general need from the quantum material simulation. The present study is a interdisciplinary one and is sometimes called 'Application-Algorithm-Architecture co-design'. The co-design will play a crucial role in exa-scale scientific computations.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Preconditioning orbital minimization method for planewave discretization

We present an efficient preconditioner for the orbital minimization method when the Hamiltonian is discretized using planewaves (i.e., pseudospectral method). This novel preconditioner is based on an approximate Fermi operator projection by pole expansion, combined with the sparsifying preconditioner to efficiently evaluate the pole expansion for a wide range of Hamiltonian operators. Numerical results validate the performance of the new preconditioner for the orbital minimization method, in particular, the iteration number is reduced to $O(1)$ and often only a few iterations are enough for convergence

Multilevel domain decomposition for electronic structure calculations

We introduce a new multilevel domain decomposition method (MDD) for electronic structure calculations within semi-empirical and Density Functional Theory (DFT) frameworks. This method iterates between local fine solvers and global coarse solvers, in the spirit of domain decomposition methods.Comment: 36 pages, 23 figures, submitted to Journal of Computational Physic

Plane Wave Methods for Quantum Eigenvalue Problems of Incommensurate Systems

We propose a novel numerical algorithm for computing the electronic structure related eigenvalue problem of incommensurate systems. Unlike the conventional practice that approximates the system by a large commensurate supercell, our algorithm directly discretizes the eigenvalue problem under the framework of a plane wave method. The emerging ergodicity and the interpretation from higher dimensions give rise to many unique features compared to what we have been familiar with in the periodic system. The numerical results of 1D and 2D quantum eigenvalue problems are presented to show the reliability and efficiency of our scheme. Furthermore, the extension of our algorithm to full Kohn-Sham density functional theory calculations are discussed.Comment: 21 page

ELSI: A Unified Software Interface for Kohn-Sham Electronic Structure Solvers

Solving the electronic structure from a generalized or standard eigenproblem is often the bottleneck in large scale calculations based on Kohn-Sham density-functional theory. This problem must be addressed by essentially all current electronic structure codes, based on similar matrix expressions, and by high-performance computation. We here present a unified software interface, ELSI, to access different strategies that address the Kohn-Sham eigenvalue problem. Currently supported algorithms include the dense generalized eigensolver library ELPA, the orbital minimization method implemented in libOMM, and the pole expansion and selected inversion (PEXSI) approach with lower computational complexity for semilocal density functionals. The ELSI interface aims to simplify the implementation and optimal use of the different strategies, by offering (a) a unified software framework designed for the electronic structure solvers in Kohn-Sham density-functional theory; (b) reasonable default parameters for a chosen solver; (c) automatic conversion between input and internal working matrix formats, and in the future (d) recommendation of the optimal solver depending on the specific problem. Comparative benchmarks are shown for system sizes up to 11,520 atoms (172,800 basis functions) on distributed memory supercomputing architectures.Comment: 55 pages, 14 figures, 2 table

A partitioned shift-without-invert algorithm to improve parallel eigensolution efficiency in real-space electronic transport

We present an eigenspectrum partitioning scheme without inversion for the recently described real-space electronic transport code, TRANSEC. The primary advantage of TRANSEC is its highly parallel algorithm, which enables studying conductance in large systems. The present scheme adds a new source of parallelization, significantly enhancing TRANSEC's parallel scalability, especially for systems with many electrons. In principle, partitioning could enable super-linear parallel speedup, as we demonstrate in calculations within TRANSEC. In practical cases, we report better than five-fold improvement in CPU time and similar improvements in wall time, compared to previously-published large calculations. Importantly, the suggested scheme is relatively simple to implement. It can be useful for general large Hermitian or weakly non-Hermitian eigenvalue problems, whenever relatively accurate inversion via direct or iterative linear solvers is impractical

Higher-order adaptive finite-element methods for Kohn-Sham density functional theory

We present an efficient computational approach to perform real-space electronic structure calculations using an adaptive higher-order finite-element discretization of Kohn-Sham density-functional theory (DFT). To this end, we develop an a-priori mesh adaption technique to construct a close to optimal finite-element discretization of the problem. We further propose an efficient solution strategy for solving the discrete eigenvalue problem by using spectral finite-elements in conjunction with Gauss-Lobatto quadrature, and a Chebyshev acceleration technique for computing the occupied eigenspace. The proposed approach has been observed to provide a staggering 100-200 fold computational advantage over the solution of a generalized eigenvalue problem. Using the proposed solution procedure, we investigate the computational efficiency afforded by higher-order finite-element discretization of the Kohn-Sham DFT problem. Our studies suggest that staggering computational savings of the order of 1000 fold relative to linear finite-elements can be realized, for both all-electron and local pseudopotential calculations. On all the benchmark systems studied, we observe diminishing returns in computational savings beyond the sixth-order for accuracies commensurate with chemical accuracy. A comparative study of the computational efficiency of the proposed higher-order finite-element discretizations suggests that the performance of finite-element basis is competing with the plane-wave discretization for non-periodic local pseudopotential calculations, and compares to the Gaussian basis for all-electron calculations within an order of magnitude. Further, we demonstrate the capability of the proposed approach to compute the electronic structure of a metallic system containing 1688 atoms using modest computational resources, and good scalability of the present implementation up to 192 processors.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1110.128

Non-linear eigensolver-based alternative to traditional SCF methods

The self-consistent procedure in electronic structure calculations is revisited using a highly efficient and robust algorithm for solving the non-linear eigenvector problem i.e. H({{\psi}}){\psi} = E{\psi}. This new scheme is derived from a generalization of the FEAST eigenvalue algorithm to account for the non-linearity of the Hamiltonian with the occupied eigenvectors. Using a series of numerical examples and the DFT-Kohn/Sham model, it will be shown that our approach can outperform the traditional SCF mixing-scheme techniques by providing a higher converge rate, convergence to the correct solution regardless of the choice of the initial guess, and a significant reduction of the eigenvalue solve time in simulations

Multigrid Methods in Electronic Structure Calculations

We describe a set of techniques for performing large scale ab initio calculations using multigrid accelerations and a real-space grid as a basis. The multigrid methods provide effective convergence acceleration and preconditioning on all length scales, thereby permitting efficient calculations for ill-conditioned systems with long length scales or high energy cut-offs. We discuss specific implementations of multigrid and real-space algorithms for electronic structure calculations, including an efficient multigrid-accelerated solver for Kohn-Sham equations, compact yet accurate discretization schemes for the Kohn-Sham and Poisson equations, optimized pseudo\-potentials for real-space calculations, efficacious computation of ionic forces, and a complex-wavefunction implementation for arbitrary sampling of the Brillioun zone. A particular strength of a real-space multigrid approach is its ready adaptability to massively parallel computer architectures, and we present an implementation for the Cray-T3D with essentially linear scaling of the execution time with the number of processors. The method has been applied to a variety of periodic and non-periodic systems, including disordered Si, a N impurity in diamond, AlN in the wurtzite structure, and bulk Al. The high accuracy of the atomic forces allows for large step molecular dynamics; e.g., in a 1 ps simulation of Si at 1100 K with an ionic step of 80 a.u., the total energy was conserved within 27 microeV per atom.Comment: RevTeX preprint format, 41 pages, 4 postscript figure