The rocky path of DFT into chemistry—Discussions at a symposium and reflections on a circular journey in honor of Axel Becke 1953–2025

Abstract

We summarize a recent symposium on density functional theory for electronic structure in chemical applications and honor a key contributor, Axel Becke. The theory of electronic structure is entirely quantum mechanical and, in its original wave function form, runs into mathematical and numerical problems due to high spatial dimensionality, as each electron adds three new coordinates. The approximate reduction of dimensionality in the form of density functional theory (DFT) was first proposed in the mid-1920s but took 40 years to be verified as possible in principle. The development of increasingly accurate functionals, expressing the electronic energy in terms of the density of the electrons, was initially driven by the physics community, but after a series of innovations, including (i) going from local to non-local exchange–correlation energy functionals and (ii) partial retention of exact exchange in terms of wave functions, there was a breakthrough in the early 1990s, and leading quantum chemists accepted DFT. The resulting improved ability to solve chemical problems by computation was rewarded with a Nobel Prize to Walter Kohn and John Pople in 1998. Given the many controversies surrounding the introduction of DFT into chemistry, a symposium was held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on November 7 and 8, 2024, to look back at the barriers and breakthroughs and identify the key contributors and their advancements. Axel Becke played a major role in bringing DFT into chemistry. We record the unique breadth and depth of the discussions at the symposium and the role of Becke, whose life ended a year thereafter.