> Has anyone had experience using SIESTA to calculate degenerate > frequencies? > Even if I force exact symmetry in the unit cell, I get very non-degenerate > frequencies when they should be identical. Could I be doing something > wrong > or is this a numerical limitation with SIESTA? > > Thanks, > Ben >
Dear Ben: this is pure numerics (as there are no symmetry constraints imposed in Siesta), but the fact that you have VERY non-degenerate frequencies which should be equal means that something is not so good with your numerics. Reasons for numerical noise: - mesh (due to the construction of primitive cell, X is not exactly equivalent to Y, or similar); - k-mesh; - unknown/undetected bugs :-) When doing phonon calculations, you should check the convergence of MeshCutoff (eggbox effect), and once this done, increase the k-mesh until the forces do not noticeably depend on it. Best regards Andrei Postnikov