<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">We do not necessarily disagree. The internal energy is harder to converge than the free energy, because the first is not variational, whereas the latter is so. Also, level crossing is obviously much reduced (and eventually eliminated) for large enough smearing. S.<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 25 Jan 2021, at 16:59, Nicola Marzari <<a href="mailto:nicola.marzari@gmail.com" class="">nicola.marzari@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear Stefano, Lucas,</div><p class="">this is one of the few areas where I disagree with Stefano - I
think we should use the free energy (forces and stresses are the
total derivative of the free energy, not the internal energy), and
that level-crossing instabilities are exceedinfly difficult to
cure with iterative algorithms (my own opinions are here:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://theossrv1.epfl.ch/Main/ElectronicTemperature">http://theossrv1.epfl.ch/Main/ElectronicTemperature</a>),</p>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> nicola</div>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 25/01/2021 16:33, Stefano Baroni
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I beg to slight differ. It does not make much sense to assign a
“default value” to the Gaussian smearing, unless one makes sure
that the computations are well converged with respect to the
number of k points, for that specific value of the smearing. The
rational procedure to follow is: 1) start with whatever value of
the smearing one wishes, and make sure that the (internal, *not*
“fake free”) energy is well converged with respect to the number
of k points. If the number of k points is sufficient, it is likely
that no nasty oscillation would arise; 2) decrease the smearing
and vary the number of k points accordingly. HTH — Stefano B
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<div style="font-size: 12px;" class="">—<br class="">
Stefano Baroni - SISSA, Trieste - <a href="http://stefano.baroni.me/" class="" moz-do-not-send="true">http://stefano.baroni.me</a>,
stefanobaroni (skype)<br class="">
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I do not mind if you think slowly, but I do object
when you publish more quickly than you think [W.E.
Pauli to an unknown colleague, as reported by N.
Kemmer]</div>
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<div class="">On 25 Jan 2021, at 15:08, Lucas Nicolás
Lodeiro Moraga <<a href="mailto:lucas.lodeiro@ug.uchile.cl" class="" moz-do-not-send="true">lucas.lodeiro@ug.uchile.cl</a>>
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<div dir="ltr" class="">Hi,
<div class="">It appears a metallic oscillation, where a
couple or more states change their relative energy,
and change their energetical order, then the
occupation changes abruptly (non continuous). If this
is the problem, it is better to increase the degauss
value and/or change the smearing method.</div>
<div class="">Typically I use methfessel-paxton with
0.015 Ry for degauss, which mimics the VASP default
values. When you get a converged system, you can try
to decrease (slowly) the degauss.</div>
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<div class="">Regards - Lucas Lodeiro</div>
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