  We report on density functional total energy calculations of the step
formation and interaction energies for vicinal TaC(001) surfaces. Our
calculations show that double and triple-height steps are favored over
single-height steps for a given vicinal orientation, which is in agreement with
recent experimental observations. We provide a description of steps in terms of
atomic displacements and charge localization and predict an experimentally
observable rumpled structure of the step-edges, where the Ta atoms undergo
larger displacements compared to the C atoms.
