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Main Authors: Singh, Rakshit Kumar, Barsainyan, Aryan Amit, Ramsundar, Bharath
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15923
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author Singh, Rakshit Kumar
Barsainyan, Aryan Amit
Ramsundar, Bharath
author_facet Singh, Rakshit Kumar
Barsainyan, Aryan Amit
Ramsundar, Bharath
contents Density Functional Theory (DFT) is widely used for first-principles simulations in chemistry and materials science, but its computational cost remains a key limitation for large systems. Motivated by recent advances in ML-based exchange-correlation (XC) functionals, this paper introduces a differentiable framework that integrates machine learning models into density functional theory (DFT) for solids and other periodic systems. The framework defines a clean API for neural network models that can act as drop in replacements for conventional exchange-correlation (XC) functionals and enables gradients to flow through the full self-consistent DFT workflow. The framework is implemented in Python using a PyTorch backend, making it fully differentiable and easy to use with standard deep learning tools. We integrate the implementation with the DeepChem library to promote the reuse of established models and to lower the barrier for experimentation. In initial benchmarks against established electronic structure packages (GPAW and PySCF), our models achieve relative errors on the order of 5-10%.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_15923
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A fully differentiable framework for training proxy Exchange Correlation Functionals for periodic systems
Singh, Rakshit Kumar
Barsainyan, Aryan Amit
Ramsundar, Bharath
Materials Science
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Density Functional Theory (DFT) is widely used for first-principles simulations in chemistry and materials science, but its computational cost remains a key limitation for large systems. Motivated by recent advances in ML-based exchange-correlation (XC) functionals, this paper introduces a differentiable framework that integrates machine learning models into density functional theory (DFT) for solids and other periodic systems. The framework defines a clean API for neural network models that can act as drop in replacements for conventional exchange-correlation (XC) functionals and enables gradients to flow through the full self-consistent DFT workflow. The framework is implemented in Python using a PyTorch backend, making it fully differentiable and easy to use with standard deep learning tools. We integrate the implementation with the DeepChem library to promote the reuse of established models and to lower the barrier for experimentation. In initial benchmarks against established electronic structure packages (GPAW and PySCF), our models achieve relative errors on the order of 5-10%.
title A fully differentiable framework for training proxy Exchange Correlation Functionals for periodic systems
topic Materials Science
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15923