Successful Papers on Density Functional Theory

Congratulations to the Goerigk group who published a front-cover article in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), which also got selected for PCCP’s themed collection of “2018 hot articles” [1]. The paper addresses the every-growing and confusing “zoo" of double-hybrid density functional theory (DFT) methods.

While double-hybrid DFT is without doubt the most accurate and robust DFT approach for routine computational applications in chemistry, the developer community does not agree on which of the two current philosophies to develop double hybrids is the best. This paper addresses this issue and provides the first balanced look at both strategies and comes up with an answer that will influence both the DFT developer and user communities. In particular, it is shown that one of the two competing strategies does not meet the high hopes that some in the computational-chemistry community may have had. Thus, the published findings seriously question current trends in the field and inspire changes for future developments.

This article is part of an ongoing effort by the Goerigk group to shed light into the DFT world. DFT has become a very important methodology in molecular chemistry and condensed-matter physics, however, it is riddled with many misconceptions. In this context, a related PCCP front-cover article published by Goerigk et al. in late December 2017 [2] was recently identified as “hot paper” by Web of Science’s Essential Science Indicators,  as it got published within the past two years and received enough citations in March and April 2018 "to place it in the top 0.1% of papers in the academic field of Chemistry”.

[1] N. Mehta, M. Casanova-Páez, L. Goerigk,* “Semi-empirical or non-empirical double-hybrid density functionals: which are more robust?”, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2018, 20, 23175-23194.
[2] L. Goerigk,* A. Hansen, C. Bauer, S. Ehrlich, A. Najibi, S. Grimme,* “A look at the Density Functional Theory zoo with the advanced GMTKN55 database for general main group thermochemistry, kinetics and noncovalent interactions”, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2017, 19, 32184-32215.