Many experimental probes of materials properties involve electronic excitations. Modern high intensity photon sources (synchrotrons, ultrafast lasers, etc.) can now probe materials with unprecedented resolution and open the potential for novel materials processing and materials science studies. In the last few decades, computational physics has achieved enormous successes in describing ground-state properties. In contrast, quantitative descriptions of excitations and response functions are just emerging. The objective of this workshop is to assess the technical and computational issues that will enable calculations of linear and nonlinear response functions at the same level of sophistication and accuracy that is now possible for the ground-state. Specific short- and long-term objectives that will impact theoretical understanding and applications to materials studies, including characterization and processing will be discussed and presented at this meeting.

This meeting is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Computational Materials Science Network (CMSN). The mission of the Computational Materials Sciences Network is to advance frontiers in computational materials science by assembling diverse sets of researchers committed to working together to solve relevant materials problems that require cooperation across organizational and disciplinary boundaries.