A Large-scale Parallel Implementation of Quasi-Four-Component Relativistic Density Functional Theory with Numeric Atom-centered Orbitals
Abstract
We present a large-scale parallel implementation of fully relativistic density functional theory (DFT) for both molecules and periodic solids, using the quasi-four-component (Q4C) method and numeric atom-centered orbital basis sets. Our approach employs a domain decomposition method on nonuniform real-space integration grids, which enables order-N integration of the Q4C Hamiltonian matrix elements using efficient, distributed-memory and compute-parallel real-space operations. Next, we build the Hamiltonian and overlap matrices in a two-dimensional block-cyclic distribution layout. The resulting generalized eigenvalue problems are solved with the massively parallel ELPA eigenvalue solver library. We benchmark memory usage, parallel efficiency, and scalability across multiple MPI tasks and compute nodes. This algorithm extends the reach of fully relativistic DFT simulations for periodic solids, tested up to 3,383 atoms per unit cell (216,628 basis functions) and likely still well below the true reach of the implementation. As a demonstration, we calculate the fully relativistic band structure for a 3,383 atom-per-unit-cell doped hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite, (PEA)2(Pb1-xBix)I4 (PEA=phenethylammonium), showing nearly ideal scalability between 336 and 672 physical CPU cores.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2608.00773,
title = {A Large-scale Parallel Implementation of Quasi-Four-Component Relativistic Density Functional Theory with Numeric Atom-centered Orbitals},
author = {Wentao Zhang and Rundong Zhao and Volker Blum},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.00773},
year = {2026}
}