Electronic coarse graining: Predictive atomistic modeling of condensed matter

The potentials and forces that govern the interaction of atoms and molecules with each other, and with their environment, are crucial for understanding and simulating complex condensed matter systems. At the same time, they are complicated and hard to describe at a microscopic level. This review gives a pedagogical introduction to a method for treating these interactions in an effective manner that can be used for simulations of noble gas fluids and solids, as well as water, and has potential for applications to more complicated systems.