No Arabic abstract
We derive the second-order approximation (PT2) to the ensemble correlation energy functional by applying the G{o}rling-Levy perturbation theory on the ensemble density-functional theory (EDFT). Its performance is checked by calculating excitation energies with the direct ensemble correction method in 1D model systems and 3D atoms using numerically exact Kohn-Sham orbitals and potentials. Comparing with the exchange-only approximation, the inclusion of the ensemble PT2 correlation improves the excitation energies in 1D model systems in most cases, including double excitations and charge-transfer excitations. However, the excitation energies for atoms are generally worse with PT2. We find that the failure of PT2 in atoms is due to the two contributions of an orbital-dependent functional to excitation energies being inconsistent in the calculations. We also analyze the convergence of PT2 excitation energies with respect to the number of unoccupied orbitals.
We train a neural network as the universal exchange-correlation functional of density-functional theory that simultaneously reproduces both the exact exchange-correlation energy and potential. This functional is extremely non-local, but retains the computational scaling of traditional local or semi-local approximations. It therefore holds the promise of solving some of the delocalization problems that plague density-functional theory, while maintaining the computational efficiency that characterizes the Kohn-Sham equations. Furthermore, by using automatic differentiation, a capability present in modern machine-learning frameworks, we impose the exact mathematical relation between the exchange-correlation energy and the potential, leading to a fully consistent method. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by looking at one-dimensional systems with two strongly-correlated electrons, where density-functional methods are known to fail, and investigate the behavior and performance of our functional by varying the degree of non-locality.
Classical density functional theory for finite temperatures is usually formulated in the grand-canonical ensemble where arbitrary variations of the local density are possible. However, in many cases the systems of interest are closed with respect to mass, e.g. canonical systems with fixed temperature and particle number. Although the tools of standard, grand-canonical density functional theory are often used in an ad hoc manner to study closed systems, their formulation directly in the canonical ensemble has so far not been known. In this work, the fundamental theorems underlying classical DFT are revisited and carefully compared in the two ensembles showing that there are only trivial formal differences. The practicality of DFT in the canonical ensemble is then illustrated by deriving the exact Helmholtz functional for several systems: the ideal gas, certain restricted geometries in arbitrary numbers of dimensions and finally a system of two hard-spheres in one dimension (hard rods) in a small cavity. Some remarkable similarities between the ensembles are apparent even for small systems with the latter showing strong echoes of the famous exact of result of Percus in the grand-canonical ensemble.
A very specific ensemble of ground and excited states is shown to yield an exact formula for any excitation energy as a simple correction to the energy difference between orbitals of the Kohn-Sham ground state. This alternative scheme avoids either the need to calculate many unoccupied levels as in time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) or the need for many self-consistent ensemble calculations. The symmetry-eigenstate Hartree-exchange (SEHX) approximation yields results comparable to standard TDDFT for atoms. With this formalism, SEHX yields approximate double-excitations, which are missed by adiabatic TDDFT.
A curious behavior of electron correlation energy is explored. Namely, the correlation energy is the energy that tends to drive the system toward that of the uniform electron gas. As such, the energy assumes its maximum value when a gradient of density is zero. As the gradient increases, the energy is diminished by a gradient suppressing factor, designed to attenuate the energy from its maximum value similar to the shape of a bell curve. Based on this behavior, we constructed a very simple mathematical formula that predicted the correlation energy of atoms and molecules. Combined with our proposed exchange energy functional, we calculated the correlation energies, the total energies, and the ionization energies of test atoms and molecules; and despite the unique simplicities, the functionals accuracies are in the top tier performance, competitive to the B3LYP, BLYP, PBE, TPSS, and M11. Therefore, we propose that, as guided by the simplicities and supported by the accuracies, the correlation energy is the energy that locally tends to drive the system toward the uniform electron gas.
We extend the range-separated double-hybrid RSH+MP2 method [J. G. Angyan et al., Phys. Rev. A 72, 012510 (2005)], combining long-range HF exchange and MP2 correlation with a short-range density functional, to a fully self-consistent version using the optimized-effective-potential technique in which the orbitals are obtained from a local potential including the long-range HF and MP2 contributions. We test this approach, that we name RS-OEP2, on a set of small closed-shell atoms and molecules. For the commonly used value of the range-separation parameter $mu=0.5$ bohr$^{-1}$, we find that self-consistency does not seem to bring any improvement for total energies, ionization potentials, and electronic affinities. However, contrary to the non-self-consistent RSH+MP2 method, the present RS-OEP2 method gives a LUMO energy which physically corresponds to a neutral excitation energy and gives local exchange-correlation potentials which are reasonably good approximations to the corresponding Kohn-Sham quantities. At a finer scale, we find that RS-OEP2 gives largely inaccurate correlation potentials and correlated densities, which points to the need of further improvement of this type of range-separated double hybrids.