Razvan Caracas’s research group investigates planetary interiors and surfaces. We employ computational techniques based on the density-functional theory and the density-functional perturbation theory to understand the behavior of minerals in a variety of planetary environments. More recently, we adopted machine learning tehcniqes to fit highly accurate interatomic potentials to perform multi-million atoms simulations.
Our aim is to complement experiments, not replace them. We reach thermodynamical and thermochemical conditions that go well beyond the experimental limits to understand, determine and predict the properties and the functioning of planets.