Dear Diary,
Today we learned in the ABC of DFT about Hartree Fock.
Finding the wave function for all electrons is difficult because the electrons push on each through a Coulomb force. It would be advantageous to calculate the wave function of one electron with the others stationary and then calculate the rest of the electrons sequentially. Once you go around the set of electrons a few times, then things will stop changing and you have a good approximation as to where the electrons should be. One way to do this is by writing the wave function as a Slater determinant.
Density Functional Theory is all about approximations, and there are a lot of them, so I'll try to keep you in the loop, diary.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
My first project
Dear Diary,
Professor Burke wants me to take a warm up project to start off with. His prized student Lucas and post-doc Miles are comparing what Density Functional theory looks like in 1D against the highly accurate DMRG. The end goal is to find lessons on how to apply DFT in three dimensions with these comparisons.
One project, which seems to be lurking around in pieces on the group server is an investigation with expellium (exponential interaction + jellium) where the regular Coulomb interaction has been replaced by an exponential interaction. I am to find all the pieces of this project and formulate a paper on it before August.
As a part of a weekly, individual meeting with Professor Burke, I should type up an individual meeting note and send it to him. I included a sample of my first note in the new person folder on pbe for new students. It's located inside the Beginner's Guide.
Professor Burke wants me to take a warm up project to start off with. His prized student Lucas and post-doc Miles are comparing what Density Functional theory looks like in 1D against the highly accurate DMRG. The end goal is to find lessons on how to apply DFT in three dimensions with these comparisons.
One project, which seems to be lurking around in pieces on the group server is an investigation with expellium (exponential interaction + jellium) where the regular Coulomb interaction has been replaced by an exponential interaction. I am to find all the pieces of this project and formulate a paper on it before August.
As a part of a weekly, individual meeting with Professor Burke, I should type up an individual meeting note and send it to him. I included a sample of my first note in the new person folder on pbe for new students. It's located inside the Beginner's Guide.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
I joined the group!
Dear Diary,
I finally got a chance to accept Professor Burke's offer. I can't help but wonder if I've played right into his plans. He said as soon as a desk opens up, I could move into the building with the rest of the group.
He also wants me to take the ABC of DFT introductory course. He's written a book over the past few years with his students to introduce the topic. The Chemistry department offers the course as a class for credit, so I'll take some units and show up for all the meetings.
I finally got a chance to accept Professor Burke's offer. I can't help but wonder if I've played right into his plans. He said as soon as a desk opens up, I could move into the building with the rest of the group.
He also wants me to take the ABC of DFT introductory course. He's written a book over the past few years with his students to introduce the topic. The Chemistry department offers the course as a class for credit, so I'll take some units and show up for all the meetings.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
I'm in the group!
Diary,
Professor Burke took a poll of everyone in the group and offered me the last spot on the group. I guess I didn't make everyone angry! I'm very keen to accept and will tell him that tomorrow.
Right now, the quarter is taking up a lot of my time, and I should probably concentrate on the classes since they're only a few weeks long. I only get once chance to do well in my classes, but I'll make sure I put in a lot of effort over the summer to produce high quality research.
Maybe I can sneak in some research anyway...
Professor Burke took a poll of everyone in the group and offered me the last spot on the group. I guess I didn't make everyone angry! I'm very keen to accept and will tell him that tomorrow.
Right now, the quarter is taking up a lot of my time, and I should probably concentrate on the classes since they're only a few weeks long. I only get once chance to do well in my classes, but I'll make sure I put in a lot of effort over the summer to produce high quality research.
Maybe I can sneak in some research anyway...
Monday, March 25, 2013
Introductory Research Presentation
Dear Diary,
I gave my research presentation today to the group and it started as a disastor. I misread the email that was announcing the meeting and showed up 18 minutes late (which I thought would be 12 minutes early).
After that, everything went ok. I filled up the 30 minutes with what I'd done for my Master's degree, took some questions, and half of the people from the beginning were still there at the end!
Professor Burke will get back to me in a few days with a decision.
I gave my research presentation today to the group and it started as a disastor. I misread the email that was announcing the meeting and showed up 18 minutes late (which I thought would be 12 minutes early).
After that, everything went ok. I filled up the 30 minutes with what I'd done for my Master's degree, took some questions, and half of the people from the beginning were still there at the end!
Professor Burke will get back to me in a few days with a decision.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Decision to Join
Dear Diary,
I can't help but be interested in what this group does. Lots of people say that it's old physics and that I should only do it if I really want to, but I can't help but be interested by it. I'm afraid I'll have to try to get into the group.
I told the Group Manager that I want to schedule the talk. The next meeting is in two weeks, so I'll have some time to prepare a 30 minute introductory mini-lecture on my previous research.
I can't help but be interested in what this group does. Lots of people say that it's old physics and that I should only do it if I really want to, but I can't help but be interested by it. I'm afraid I'll have to try to get into the group.
I told the Group Manager that I want to schedule the talk. The next meeting is in two weeks, so I'll have some time to prepare a 30 minute introductory mini-lecture on my previous research.
Monday, March 4, 2013
First Group Meeting
Dear Diary,
I went to my first group meeting today and got to meet everyone. All of Professor Burke's students are really nice, but I don't know any of their names. I've decided to keep a low profile since graduate students are meant to be seen and not heard.
One of the post-docs, Miles, gave the first of a few talks on the renowned Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). Apparently the method is a computational way to renormalize density matrices in a group and a really slick way to calculate things in one dimension. I took good notes and will see if I can figure out what they mean as I go forward.
I went to my first group meeting today and got to meet everyone. All of Professor Burke's students are really nice, but I don't know any of their names. I've decided to keep a low profile since graduate students are meant to be seen and not heard.
One of the post-docs, Miles, gave the first of a few talks on the renowned Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). Apparently the method is a computational way to renormalize density matrices in a group and a really slick way to calculate things in one dimension. I took good notes and will see if I can figure out what they mean as I go forward.
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