Strain Functionals: A Complete and Symmetry-adapted Set of Descriptors to Characterize Atomistic Configurations

Extracting relevant information from atomistic simulations relies on a complete and accurate characterization of atomistic configurations. We present a framework for characterizing atomistic configurations in terms of a complete and symmetry-adapted basis, referred to as strain functionals. In this approach a Gaussian kernel is used to map discrete atomic quantities, such as number density, velocities, and forces, to continuous fields. The local atomic configurations are then characterized using nth order central moments of the local number density. The initial Cartesian moments are recast unitarily into a Solid Harmonic Polynomial basis using SO(3) decompositions. Rotationally invariant metrics, referred to as Strain Functional Descriptors (SFDs), are constructed from the terms in the SO(3) decomposition using Clebsch-Gordan coupling. A key distinction compared to related methods is that a minimal but complete set of descriptors is identified. These descriptors characterize the local geometries numerically in terms of shape, size, and orientation descriptors that recognize n-fold symmetry axes and net shapes such as trigonal, cubic, hexagonal, etc. They can easily distinguish between most different crystal symmetries using n = 4, identify defects (such as dislocations and stacking faults), measure local deformation, and can be used in conjunction with machine learning techniques for in situ analysis of finite temperature atomistic simulation data and quantification of defect dynamics.