Two-dimensional (2D) phases of boron are rare and unique. Here we report a new 2D all-boron phase (named the π phase) that can be grown on a W(110) surface. The π phase, composed of four-membered rings and six-membered rings filled with an additional B atom, is predicted to be the most stable on this support. It is characterized by an outstanding stability upon exfoliation off of the W surface, and unusual electronic properties. The chemical bonding analysis reveals the metallic nature of this material, which can be attributed to the multicentered π-bonds. Importantly, the calculated conductivity tensor is anisotropic, showing larger conductivity in the direction of the sheet that is in-line with the conjugated π-bonds, and diminished in the direction where the π-subsystems are connected by single σ-bonds. The π-phase can be viewed as an ultrastable web of aligned conducting boron wires, possibly of interest to applications in electronic devices.

Borides have been recently identified to be a class of earth-abundant and low-cost materials that are surprisingly active toward oxidative dehydrogenation and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysis. Here, we explain from first-principles calculations the HER activity of WB, an industrial material known for its superior physical properties and chemical inertness. We find that, compared to bulk termination, a major surface reconstruction takes place, leading to the off-stoichiometric B-rich surface termination that contains the active sites. The hydrogen adsorbate configurations are further investigated under various adsorbate coverages. Many competing configurations appear to be accessible in reaction conditions, and thus, a grand canonical ensemble is established to describe the catalytic system. A phase diagram of adsorbate coverages is constructed as a function of pH and the applied potential. A complex reaction network is presented based on the ensemble-averaged reaction rates, and the electrocatalytic activities are evaluated under different overpotentials. The major contributors to the activity are found to be a few metastable surface states with a distinct electronic structure that are only accessible at high adsorbate coverages in reaction conditions. In addition, while the activity of the dominant active site is nearly the same as that on the unreconstructed WB, the B-rich formations play an important role of isolating the active sites and preventing the passivation of the surface with H2 bubble formation.

Density matrix embedding theory (DMET) is a quantum embedding theory for strongly correlated systems. From a computational perspective, one bottleneck in DMET is the optimization of the correlation potential to achieve self-consistency, especially for heterogeneous systems of large size. We propose a new method, called projected DMET (p-DMET), which achieves self-consistency without needing to optimize the correlation potential. We demonstrate the performance of p-DMET on the two-dimensional Hubbard model.

Due to intense interest in the potential applications of quantum computing, it is critical to understand the basis for potential exponential quantum advantage in quantum chemistry. Here we gather the evidence for this case in the most common task in quantum chemistry, namely, ground-state energy estimation, for generic chemical problems where heuristic quantum state preparation might be assumed to be efficient. The availability of exponential quantum advantage then centers on whether features of the physical problem that enable efficient heuristic quantum state preparation also enable efficient solution by classical heuristics. Through numerical studies of quantum state preparation and empirical complexity analysis (including the error scaling) of classical heuristics, in both ab initio and model Hamiltonian settings, we conclude that evidence for such an exponential advantage across chemical space has yet to be found. While quantum computers may still prove useful for ground-state quantum chemistry through polynomial speedups, it may be prudent to assume exponential speedups are not generically available for this problem.