Electronic Moment Tensor Potentials Include Both Electronic and Vibrational Degrees of Freedom

We present the electronic moment tensor potentials (eMTPs), a class of machine-learning interatomic models and a generalization of the classical MTPs, reproducing both the electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom, up to the accuracy of ab initio calculations. Following the original polynomial interpolation idea of the MTPs, the eMTPs are defined as polynomials of vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom, corrected to have a finite interatomic cutoff. Practically, an eMTP is constructed from the classical MTPs fitted to a training set, whose energies and forces are calculated with electronic temperatures corresponding to the Chebyshev nodes on a given temperature interval. The eMTP energy is hence a Chebyshev interpolation of the classical MTPs. Using the eMTP, one can obtain the temperature-dependent vibrational free energy including anharmonicity coming from phonon interactions, the electronic free energy coming from electron interactions, and the coupling of atomic vibrations and electronic excitations. Each of the contributions can be accessed individually using the proposed formalism. The performance of eMTPs is demonstrated for two refractory systems which have a significant electronic, vibrational and coupling contribution up to the melting point—unary Nb, and a disordered TaVCrW high-entropy alloy. Highly accurate thermodynamic and kinetic quantities can now be obtained just by using eMTPs, without any further ab initio calculations. The proposed construction to include the electronic degree of freedom can also be applied to other machine-learning models.