An Efficient Time-Stepping Scheme for Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations

In ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of real-world problems, the simple Verlet method is still widely used for integrating the equations of motion, while more efficient algorithms are routinely used in classical molecular dynamics. We show that if the Verlet method is used in conjunction with pre- and postprocessing, the accuracy of the time integration is significantly improved with only a small computational overhead. We also propose several extensions of the algorithm required for use in ab initio molecular dynamics. The validity of the processed Verlet method is demonstrated in several examples including ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of liquid water. The structural properties obtained from the processed Verlet method are found to be sufficiently accurate even for large time steps close to the stability limit. This approach results in a 2x performance gain over the standard Verlet method for a given accuracy. We also show how to generate a canonical ensemble within this approach.