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High-throughput DFT calculations are key to screening existing/novel materials, sampling potential energy surfaces, and generating quantum mechanical data for machine learning. By including a fraction of exact exchange (EXX), hybrid functionals reduce the self-interaction error in semi-local DFT and furnish a more accurate description of the underlying electronic structure, albeit at a high computational cost that often prohibits such high-throughput applications. To address this challenge, we have constructed SeA (SeA=SCDM+exx+ACE), a robust, accurate, and efficient framework for high-throughput condensed-phase hybrid DFT in the PWSCF module of Quantum ESPRESSO (QE) by combining: (1) the non-iterative selected columns of the density matrix (SCDM) orbital localization scheme, (2) a black-box and linear-scaling EXX algorithm (exx), and (3) adaptively compressed exchange (ACE). Across a diverse set of non-equilibrium (H$_2$O)$_{64}$ configurations (with densities spanning 0.4 g/cm$^3$$-$1.7 g/cm$^3$), SeA yields a one$-$two order-of-magnitude speedup (~8X$-$26X) in the overall time-to-solution compared to PWSCF(ACE) in QE (~78X$-$247X speedup compared to the conventional EXX implementation) and yields energies, ionic forces, and other properties with high fidelity. As a proof-of-principle high-throughput application, we trained a deep neural network (DNN) potential for ambient liquid water at the hybrid DFT level using SeA via an actively learned data set with ~8,700 (H$_2$O)$_{64}$ configurations. Using an out-of-sample set of (H$_2$O)$_{512}$ configurations (at non-ambient conditions), we confirmed the accuracy of this SeA-trained potential and showcased the capabilities of SeA by computing the ground-truth ionic forces in this challenging system containing > 1,500 atoms., Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables

In this work, we present a general framework that unites the two primary strategies for constructing density functional approximations (DFAs): non-empirical (NE) constraint satisfaction and semi-empirical (SE) data-driven optimization. The proposed method employs B-splines -- bell-shaped spline functions with compact support -- to construct each inhomogeneity correction factor (ICF). This choice offers several distinct advantages over a polynomial basis by enabling explicit enforcement of linear and non-linear constraints as well as ICF smoothness using Tikhonov regularization and penalized B-splines (P-splines). As proof of concept, we use this approach to construct CASE21 -- a Constrained And Smoothed semi-Empirical hybrid generalized gradient approximation that completely satisfies all but one constraint (and partially satisfies the remaining one) met by the PBE0 NE-DFA and exhibits enhanced performance across a diverse set of chemical properties. As such, we argue that the paradigm presented herein maintains the physical rigor and transferability of NE-DFAs while leveraging high-quality quantum-mechanical data to improve performance., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 1 scheme

In this work, we present NENCI-2021, a benchmark database of approximately $8,000$ non-equilibrium non-covalent interaction energies for a large and diverse selection of intermolecular complexes of biological and chemical relevance. To meet the growing demand for large and high-quality quantum mechanical data in the chemical sciences, NENCI-2021 starts with the $101$ molecular dimers in the widely used S66 and S101 databases, and extends the scope of these works by: (i) including $40$ cation- and anion-$\pi$ complexes, a fundamentally important class of non-covalent interactions (NCIs) that are found throughout nature and pose a substantial challenge to theory, and (ii) systematically sampling all $141$ intermolecular potential energy surfaces (PES) by simultaneously varying the intermolecular distance and intermolecular angle in each dimer. Designed with an emphasis on close contacts, the complexes in NENCI-2021 were generated by sampling seven intermolecular distances along each PES (ranging from $0.7\times\mathrm{-}1.1\times$ the equilibrium separation) as well as nine intermolecular angles per distance (five for each ion-$\pi$ complex), yielding an extensive database of $7,763$ benchmark intermolecular interaction energies ($E_{\rm int}$) obtained at the CCSD(T)/CBS level of theory. In addition, a wide range of intermolecular atom-pair distances are also present in NENCI-2021, where close intermolecular contacts involving atoms that are located within the so-called van der Waals envelope are prevalent -- these interactions in particular pose an enormous challenge for molecular modeling and are observed in many important chemical and biological systems. A detailed SAPT-based energy decomposition analysis also confirms the diverse and comprehensive nature of the intermolecular binding motifs present in NENCI-2021., Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures