No Arabic abstract
The universal functional of Hohenberg-Kohn is given as a coupling-constant integral over the density as a functional of the potential. Conditions are derived under which potential-functional approximations are variational. Construction via this method and imposition of these conditions are shown to greatly improve the accuracy of the non-interacting kinetic energy needed for orbital-free Kohn-Sham calculations.
We show that the local density of states (LDOS) of a wide class of tight-binding models has a weak body-order expansion. Specifically, we prove that the resulting body-order expansion for analytic observables such as the electron density or the energy has an exponential rate of convergence both at finite Fermi-temperature as well as for insulators at zero Fermi-temperature. We discuss potential consequences of this observation for modelling the potential energy landscape, as well as for solving the electronic structure problem.
We introduce a novel non-local ingredient for the construction of exchange density functionals: the reduced Hartree parameter, which is invariant under the uniform scaling of the density and represents the exact exchange enhancement factor for one- and two-electron systems. The reduced Hartree parameter is used together with the conventional meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA) semilocal ingredients (i.e. the electron density, its gradient and the kinetic energy density) to construct a new generation exchange functional, termed u-meta-GGA. This u-meta-GGA functional is exact for {the exchange of} any one- and two-electron systems, is size-consistent and non-empirical, satisfies the uniform density scaling relation, and recovers the modified gradient expansion derived from the semiclassical atom theory. For atoms, ions, jellium spheres, and molecules, it shows a good accuracy, being often better than meta-GGA exchange functionals. Our construction validates the use of the reduced Hartree ingredient in exchange-correlation functional development, opening the way to an additional rung in the Jacobs ladder classification of non-empirical density functionals.
A rigorous derivation of the density functional via the effective action in the Hohenberg-Kohn theory is outlined. Using the auxiliary field method, in which the electric coupling constant $e^2$ need not be small, we show that the loop expansion of the exchange-correlation functional can be reorganized so as to be expressed entirely in terms of the Kohn-Sham single-particle orbitals and energies.
Multilayer graphene with rhombohedral and Bernal stacking are supposed to be metallic, as predicted by density functional theory calculations using semi-local functionals. However recent angular resolved photoemission and transport data have questioned this point of view. In particular, rhombohedral flakes are suggested to be magnetic insulators. Bernal flakes composed of an even number of layers are insulating, while those composed of an odd number of layers are pseudogapped. Here, by systematically benchmarking with plane waves codes, we develop very accurate all-electron Gaussian basis sets for graphene multilayers. We find that, in agreement with our previous calculations, rhombohedral stacked multilayer graphene are gapped for and magnetic. However, the valence band curvature and the details of the electronic structure depend crucially on the basis set. Only substantially extended basis sets are able to correctly reproduce the effective mass of the valence band top at the K point, while the popular POB-TZVP basis set leads to a severe overestimation. In the case of Bernal stacking, we show that exact exchange gaps the flakes composed by four layers and opens pseudogaps for N = 3, 6, 7, 8. However, the gap or pseudogap size and its behaviour as a function of thickness are not compatible with experimental data. Moreover, hybrid functionals lead to a metallic solution for 5 layers and a magnetic ground state for 5, 6 and 8 layers. Magnetism is very weak with practically no effect on the electronic structure and the magnetic moments are mostly concentrated in the central layers. Our hybrid functional calculations on trilayer Bernal graphene multilayers are in excellent agreement with non-magnetic GW calculations. For thicker multilayers, our calculations are a benchmark for manybody theoretical modeling of the low energy electronic structure.
The class of the Generalized Coherent Potential Approximations (GCPA) to the Density Functional Theory (DFT) is introduced within the Multiple Scattering Theory formalism for dealing with, ordered or disordered, metallic alloys. All GCPA theories are based on a common ansatz for the kinetic part of the Hohenberg-Kohn functional and each theory of the class is specified by an external model concerning the potential reconstruction. The GCPA density functional consists of marginally coupled local contributions, does not depend on the details of the charge density and can be exactly rewritten as a function of the appropriate charge multipole moments associated with each lattice site. A general procedure based on the integration of the qV laws is described that allows for the explicit construction the same function. The coarse grained nature of the GCPA density functional implies great computational advantages and is connected with the O(N) scalability of GCPA algorithms. Moreover, it is shown that a convenient truncated series expansion of the GCPA functional leads to the Charge Excess Functional (CEF) theory [E. Bruno, L. Zingales and Y. Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 91}, 166401 (2003)] which here is offered in a generalized version that includes multipolar interactions. CEF and the GCPA numerical results are compared with status of art LAPW full-potential density functional calculations for 62, bcc- and fcc-based, ordered CuZn alloys, in all the range of concentrations. These extensive tests show that the discrepancies between GCPA and CEF are always within the numerical accuracy of the calculations, both for the site charges and the total energies. Furthermore, GCPA and CEF very carefully reproduce the LAPW site charges and the total energy trends.