COMPUTER SIMULATIONS FOR CONDENSED PHASE SYSTEMS - FROM CORRELATED ELECTRONS TO NOVEL MATERIALS

The workshop "Computer simulations for condensed phase systems: from correlated electrons to novel materials" took place in Rome at the headquarters of the CNR (Italian National Research Council) from the 4th to the 6th of May 2015. It was a celebration of Giovanni Bachelet's 60th birthday, organized by several of his former students who are currently active in the field of electronic structure calculations. Giovanni Bachelet has been among the pioneers in the field. After graduating with F. Bassani, he moved to the Bell Labs (USA), where he made key contributions to pseudopotentials theory and applications; he was then active in several European institutions (MPI Stuttgart, Scuola Normale di Pisa, CNR Trento), before being appointed a professorship in condensed matter physics at the University "La Sapienza", Rome, where he is still active. Beside his activity on a wide range of topics over the years (especially on methodological developments such as pseudopotentials, beyond-local density functionals, and Quantum Monte Carlo), Giovanni has been an important actor in the electronic structure community through mentoring, teaching, and organizational activity; many of his former students and collaborators are now established independent researchers at Italian or European institutions. The goal of the workshop was to bring together colleagues and collaborators of Giovanni from different stages of his career. This automatically provided a remarkable roster of speakers, all leading experts in the different areas of electronic structure theory (Density Functional Theory, electronic structure of real materials, correlated electrons, molecular dynamics, quantum Monte Carlo, theoretical spectroscopy). The workshop mapped out the progress of ab initio electronic structure theory over the last 30 years through the very voices of many of its leading figures, touching upon key developments, from electron-electron interaction via functionals or Monte Carlo through to cutting edge applications to nanoscience. The format of the workshop was designed to encourage exchange between participants (roughly 100, among researchers and students) at all levels. The scientific program comprised two scientific sessions with 20 invited speakers, a "round-table" where some of Giovanni's former students presented their most recent results, and a poster session. The presence of a large spectrum of subjects and of different approaches to condensed matter physics fostered lively scientific discussions after the presentations and during the poster session, a clear sign of the interest of the participants in other sometimes unfamiliar research areas.