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The enigmatic mechanism underlying unconventional high-temperature superconductivity, especially the role of lattice dynamics, has remained a subject of debate. Theoretical insights have long been hindered due to the lack of an accurate first-principles description of the lattice dynamics of cuprates. Recently, using the r2SCAN meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA) functional, we have been able to achieve accurate phonon spectra of an insulating cuprate YBa2Cu3O6 and discover significant magnetoelastic coupling in experimentally interesting Cu–O bond stretching optical modes [Ning et al., Phys. Rev. B 107, 045126 (2023)]. We extend this work by comparing Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof and r2SCAN performances with corrections from the on-site Hubbard U and the D4 van der Waals (vdW) methods, aiming at further understanding on both the materials science side and the density functional side. We demonstrate the importance of vdW and self-interaction corrections for accurate first-principles YBa2Cu3O6 lattice dynamics. Since r2SCAN by itself partially accounts for these effects, the good performance of r2SCAN is now more fully explained. In addition, the performances of the Tao–Mo series of meta-GGAs, which are constructed in a different way from the strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) meta-GGA and its revised version r2SCAN, are also compared and discussed. 

Strong correlations within a symmetry-unbroken ground-state wavefunction can show up in approximate density functional theory as symmetry-broken spin densities or total densities, which are sometimes observable. They can arise from soft modes of fluctuations (sometimes collective excitations) such as spin-density or charge-density waves at nonzero wavevector. In this sense, an approximate density functional for exchange and correlation that breaks symmetry can be more revealing (albeit less accurate) than an exact functional that does not. The examples discussed here include the stretched H₂molecule, antiferromagnetic solids, and the static charge-density wave/Wigner crystal phase of a low-density jellium. Time-dependent density functional theory is used to show quantitatively that the static charge-density wave is a soft plasmon. More precisely, the frequency of a related density fluctuation drops to zero, as found from the frequency moments of the spectral function, calculated from a recent constraint-based wavevector- and frequency-dependent jellium exchange-correlation kernel. 

In this paper, the history, present status, and future of density-functional theory (DFT) is informally reviewed and discussed by 70 workers in the field, including molecular scientists, materials scientists, method developers and practitioners. The format of the paper is that of a roundtable discussion, in which the participants express and exchange views on DFT in the form of 302 individual contributions, formulated as responses to a preset list of 26 questions. Supported by a bibliography of 777 entries, the paper represents a broad snapshot of DFT, anno 2022.