Docs: clarify Kerker bypass conditions - #7772
Merged
mohanchen merged 2 commits intoAug 4, 2026
Merged
Conversation
Document the charge and magnetic mixing thresholds that bypass Kerker preconditioning, and clarify that mixing_gg0_min does not change those fixed thresholds.
mohanchen
approved these changes
Aug 4, 2026
mohanchen
left a comment
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment.
LGTM. Thanks for your contribution!
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Linked Issue
Fixes #7766
Summary
This PR clarifies the documentation of the Kerker-related INPUT parameters:
mixing_gg0mixing_gg0_magmixing_gg0_minIt documents when Kerker preconditioning is bypassed and clarifies that changing
mixing_gg0_mindoes not alter the fixedmixing_beta <= 0.1ormixing_beta_mag <= 0.1bypass conditions.No numerical behavior, default value, INPUT parsing logic, or Kerker implementation is changed.
Background
Kerker preconditioning is used to suppress long-wavelength (small-wave-vector) charge-density fluctuations, commonly known as charge sloshing, during SCF iterations.
For the charge-density channel, the Kerker filter contains a lower bound of the form
The magnetic-density channel uses the analogous ratio
With the default
mixing_gg0_min = 0.1, the lower bound reaches or exceeds 1 when the corresponding mixing parameter is less than or equal to 0.1. Such a factor would no longer provide suppression and could become amplifying. The current implementation therefore bypasses Kerker preconditioning in this regime.The bypass thresholds are fixed in the current implementation:
mixing_beta <= 0.1.mixing_beta_mag <= 0.1.These conditions are independent of the user-provided value of
mixing_gg0_min. Changingmixing_gg0_minaffects the filter lower bound when Kerker is active, but it does not change the fixed bypass thresholds or re-enable Kerker.What's changed?
mixing_gg0controls suppression of long-wavelength, small-(G) charge-density fluctuations.mixing_gg0has no effect whenmixing_beta <= 0.1.mixing_beta_mag <= 0.1condition formixing_gg0_mag.mixing_gg0_mindescription to explain how it enters the charge and magnetic filter lower bounds.mixing_gg0_mindoes not change either fixed bypass threshold.docs/parameters.yaml, and the generatedinput-main.md.Although a C++ file appears in the diff, only the
Input_Itemdocumentation strings are changed. No calculation code is modified.