We identify Eq. ( ) as the cause for artificial minima and kinks in the dispersion energy gradient. To see why, consider the case of a very large β 2 parameter. The Gaussian weighting formula would then approach a nearest-neighbor interpolation of α A (iω) between reference values. If the molecular geometry is changed such that at least one atom migrates from the neighborhood of one reference value to the neighborhood of another, sharp jumps in dispersion energy can occur during the distortion. In the original formulation of D4, a value of β 2 = 6 is chosen. The reason given for this choice is that higher values of β 2 allow for a finer distinction between close-lying reference values. Additionally, they acknowledge the presence of possible kinks in the dispersion energy as a cause of this choice.