Polarizabilities and excitation energies from the multiplicative Kohn-Sham (MKS) approach

The conventional Kohn-Sham expressions for the static isotropic polarizability and vertical excitation energy are evaluated using Kohn-Sham orbitals and eigenvalues determined directly from theoretical electron densities. For a series of small molecules, polarizabilities determined from wavefunction-based BD(T) electron densities differ, on average, by about 2% from conventional BD(T) polarizabilities when the LDA exchange-correlation integrand is used in the electric Hessian matrix. Also polarizabilities determined from Kohn-Sham densities, using the B97-2 hybrid functional, are close to the conventional B97-2 values. To quantify the dependence on the choice of exchange-correlation integrand, calculations are performed also using the HCTH integrand. Rydberg excitation energies determined from BD(T) and B97-2 densities exhibit errors due to inaccuracies in the asymptotic exchange-correlation potential. This category of excitation energy is relatively insensitive to the choice of exchange-correlation integrand; valence excitations can be more sensitive.     

Dyson orbitals, quasi-particle effects and Compton scattering

Dyson orbitals play an important role in understanding quasi-particle effects in the correlated ground state of a many-particle system and are relevant for describing the Compton scattering cross section beyond the frameworks of the impulse approximation (IA) and the independent particle model (IPM). Here we discuss corrections to the Kohn-Sham energies due to quasi-particle effects in terms of Dyson orbitals and obtain a relatively simple local form of the exchange-correlation energy. Illustrative examples are presented to show the usefulness of our scheme.     

Correlation corrections based on the Schrödinger equation with a local potential

A compromise version of calculation of the ground state electronic energy is proposed that combines both the density functional theory and the wave function formalism. Single-particle orbitals and energies are determined by solving the Kohn-Sham equations with a local effective potential, which depends on the parameters determined by the variational principle. Correlation corrections are calculated using the Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory in the zero-order approximation of the Möller-Plesset theory. The specific features of the expressions for the corrections to the wave function and the energy determined in terms of the Kohn-Sham orbitals are considered. This approach, in contrast to the well-known optimized effective potential method, can be applied with equal computational expenditures to both atoms and molecules. A comparative analysis for 20 helium-like atoms showed that the scheme proposed provides better agreement with the “exact” values of the energy in the second order of the perturbation theory in comparison with the results obtained using the conventional exchange-correlation potentials BLYP and PW91. A similar trend is also observed for diatomic hydrides (from LiH to FH), although, in contrast to the atoms, the deviations from the experimental estimates of the energy are less systematic.     

Many-body diagrammatic expansion in a kohn-sham basis: implications for time-dependent density functional theory of excited states

We formulate diagrammatic rules for many-body perturbation theory which uses Kohn-Sham Green's functions as basic propagators. The diagram technique allows one to study the properties of the dynamic nonlocal exchange-correlation (xc) kernel f(xc). We show that the spatial nonlocality of f(xc) is strongly frequency dependent. In particular, in extended systems the nonlocality range diverges at the excitation energies. This divergency is related to the discontinuity of the xc potential.     

Local vertex corrections from exchange-correlation kernels with a discontinuity

The fundamental gap of an interacting many-electron system is given by the sum of the single-particle Kohn-Sham gap and the derivative discontinuity. The latter can be generated by advanced approximations to the exchange-correlation (XC) energy and is the key quantity to capture strong correlation with density functional theory (DFT). In this work we derive an expression for the derivative discontinuity in terms of the XC kernel of time-dependent density functional theory and demonstrate the crucial role of a discontinuity in the XC kernel itself. By relating approximate XC kernels to approximate local vertex corrections we then generate beyond-GW self-energies that include a discontinuity in the local vertex function. The quantitative importance of this result is illustrated with a numerical study of the local exchange vertex on model systems.     

Beyond the random-phase approximation for the electron correlation energy: the importance of single excitations

The random-phase approximation (RPA) for the electron correlation energy, combined with the exact-exchange (EX) energy, represents the state-of-the-art exchange-correlation functional within density-functional theory. However, the standard RPA practice--evaluating both the EX and the RPA correlation energies using Kohn-Sham (KS) orbitals from local or semilocal exchange-correlation functionals--leads to a systematic underbinding of molecules and solids. Here we demonstrate that this behavior can be corrected by adding a "single excitation" contribution, so far not included in the standard RPA scheme. A similar improvement can also be achieved by replacing the non-self-consistent EX total energy by the corresponding self-consistent Hartree-Fock total energy, while retaining the RPA correlation energy evaluated using KS orbitals. Both schemes achieve chemical accuracy for a standard benchmark set of noncovalent intermolecular interactions.     

Determination of vibrational energy levels and transition dipole moments of CO2 molecules by density functional theory

An efficient method is presented to calculate the intra-molecular potential energies and electrical dipole moments of CO₂ molecules at the electronic ground state by solving the Kohn-Sham (KS) equation for a total of 101 992 nuclear configurations. The projector-augmented wave (PAW) exchange-correlation potential functionals and plane wave (PW) basis functions were used in solving the KS equation. The calculated intra-molecular potential function was then included in the pure vibrational Schrödinger equation to determine the vibrational energy eigen values and eigen functions. The vibrational wave functions combined with the calculated dipole moment function were used to determine the transition dipole moments. The calculated results were compared with the experimental data.     

Collapse of the electron gas to two dimensions in density functional theory

Local and semilocal density functional approximations for the exchange-correlation energy fail badly in the zero-thickness limit of a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas, where the density variation is rapid almost everywhere. Here we show that a fully nonlocal fifth-rung functional, the inhomogeneous Singwi-Tosi-Land-Sj?lander (STLS) approach, which employs both occupied and unoccupied Kohn-Sham orbitals, recovers the true two-dimensional STLS limit and appears to be remarkably accurate for any thickness of the slab (and thus for the dimensional crossover). We also show that this good behavior is only partly due to the use of the full exact exchange energy.     

Performance of the constrained minimization of the total energy in density functional approximations: the electron repulsion density and potential

In the constrained minimization method of Gidopoulos and Lathiotakis [N.I. Gidopoulos, N.N. Lathiotakis, J. Chem. Phys. 136, 224109 (2012)], the Hartree exchange and correlation Kohn-Sham potential of a finite N-electron system is replaced by the electrostatic potential of an effective charge density that is everywhere positive and integrates to a charge of N ? 1 electrons. The optimal effective charge density (electron repulsion density, ρ_rep) and the corresponding optimal effective potential (electron repulsion potential v_rep) are obtained by minimizing the electronic total energy in any density functional approximation. The two constraints are sufficient to remove the self-interaction errors from v_rep, correcting its asymptotic behavior at large distances from the system. In the present work, we describe, in complete detail, the constrained minimization method, including recent refinements. We also assess its performance in removing the self-interaction errors for three popular density functional approximations, namely LDA, PBE and B3LYP, by comparing the obtained ionization energies to their experimental values for an extended set of molecules. We show that the results of the constrained minimizations are almost independent of the specific approximation with average percentage errors 15%, 14%, 13% for the above DFAs respectively. These errors are substantially smaller than the corresponding errors of the plain (unconstrained) Kohn-Sham calculations at 38%, 39% and 27% respectively. Finally, we showed that this method correctly predicts negative values for the HOMO energies of several anions.     

Simulation of all-order density-functional perturbation theory, using the second order and the strong-correlation limit

To boost the accuracy of electronic structure calculations, the exchange-correlation energy may be constructed from the Kohn-Sham orbitals. A formally exact construction is the density-functional perturbation series, which appears to diverge for many real systems. We predict the radius of convergence and resum this series, using only exact exchange and second-order correlation plus explicit density functionals for the strong-interaction limit. Our new correlation functional, along with exact exchange, predicts atomization energies with competitive accuracy and without the usual error cancellation.     

Climbing the density functional ladder: nonempirical meta-generalized gradient approximation designed for molecules and solids

The electron density, its gradient, and the Kohn-Sham orbital kinetic energy density are the local ingredients of a meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA). We construct a meta-GGA density functional for the exchange-correlation energy that satisfies exact constraints without empirical parameters. The exchange and correlation terms respect two paradigms: one- or two-electron densities and slowly varying densities, and so describe both molecules and solids with high accuracy, as shown by extensive numerical tests. This functional completes the third rung of "Jacob's ladder" of approximations, above the local spin density and GGA rungs.     

Spin-polarized calculations of electronic structures in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Zn0.75TM0.25Se (TM=Cr,Fe, Co and Ni)

In this work, we aim to examine the spin-polarized electronic band structures, the local densities of states as well as the magnetism of Zn_1−xTM_xSe (TM=Cr, Fe, Co and Ni) diluted magnetic semiconductors in the ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases, and with 25% of TM. The calculations are performed by the developed full-potential augmented plane wave plus local orbitals method within the spin density functional theory. As exchange-correlation potential we used the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) form. We treated the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases and we found that all compounds are stable in the ferromagnetic structure. Structural properties are computed after total energy minimization. Our results show that the cohesive energies of Zn_0.75TM_0.25Se are greater than that of zinc blende ZnSe. We discuss the electronic structures, total and partial densities of states, local moments and the p–d exchange splitting. Furthermore, we found that p–d hybridization reduces the local magnetic moment of TM and produces small local magnetic moments on the nonmagnetic Zn and Se sites. We found also that in the AFM phase the TM local magnetic moments are smaller than in the FM phase; this is due to the greater interaction of the TM d-up and d-down orbitals.     

Self-consistent solution of Kohn-Sham equations for infinitely extended systems with inhomogeneous electron gas

The density functional approach in the Kohn-Sham approximation is widely used to study properties of many-electron systems. Due to the nonlinearity of the Kohn-Sham equations, the general self-consistence searching method involves iterations with alternate solving of the Poisson and Schrödinger equations. One of problems of such an approach is that the charge distribution renewed by means of the solution of the Schrödinger equation does not conform to boundary conditions of the Poisson equation for the Coulomb potential. The resulting instability or even divergence of iterations manifests itself most appreciably in the case of infinitely extended systems. The known attempts to deal with this problem are reduced in fact to abandoning the original iterative method and replacing it with some approximate calculation scheme, which is usually semi-empirical and does not permit to evaluate the extent of deviation from the exact solution. In this work, we realize the iterative scheme of solving the Kohn-Sham equations for extended systems with inhomogeneous electron gas, which is based on eliminating the long-range character of Coulomb interaction as the cause of tight coupling between charge distribution and boundary conditions. The suggested algorithm is employed to calculate energy the spectrum, self-consistent potential, and electrostatic capacitance of the semi-infinite degenerate electron gas bounded by an infinitely high barrier, as well as the work function and surface energy of simple metals in the model with homogeneous distribution of positive background. The difference between self-consistent Hartree solutions and those taking into account the exchange-correlation interaction is analyzed. The comparison with the results previously published in the literature is carried out. The case study of the metal-semiconductor tunnel contact shows this method as applied to an infinitely extended system where the steady-state current can flow.     

Local spin density calculations:KL X-ray transition energies and ionisation potentials

We have calculatedKL X-ray transition energies and ionisation potentials for the firstrow and second-row atoms with the aid of different local spin density approximations to the exchange-correlation energy. The best overall agreement with experiments is obtained by using a generalizedX expression where correlation effects are included (X C approach). In particular, the X-ray energies for the second-row elements are very well described by this approach.     

Core electron binding energies in heavy atoms

Inner shell binding of electrons in heavy atoms is studied through the relativistic density functional theory in which many electron interactions are treated in a local density approximation. By using this theory and the Δscf procedure binding energies of several core electrons of mercury atom are calculated in the frozen and relaxed configurations. The results are compared with those carried out by the non-local Dirac-Fock Scheme.K-shell binding energies of several closed shell atoms are calculated by using the Kohn-Sham and the relativistic exchange potentials. The results are discussed and the discrepancies in our local density results, when compared with experimental values, may be attributed to the non-locality and to the many-body effects.     

Solving the ultranonlocality problem in time-dependent spin-density-functional theory

It has been known for some time that the exchange-correlation potential in time-dependent density-functional theory is an intrinsically nonlocal functional of the density as soon as one goes beyond the adiabatic approximation. In this paper we show that a much more severe nonlocality problem, with a completely different physical origin, plagues the exchange-correlation potentials in time-dependent spin-density functional theory. We show how the use of the spin current density as a basic variable solves this problem, and we provide an explicit local expression for the exchange-correlation fields as functionals of the spin currents.     

Implementation Strategies for Orbital-dependent Density Functionals

The development of density functional theory (DFT) has been focused primarily on two main pillars: (1) the pursuit of more accurate exchange-correlation (XC) density functionals; (2) the feasibility of computational implementation when dealing with many-body systems. In this context, this work is aimed on using one-dimensional quantum systems as theoretical laboratories to investigate the implementation of orbital functionals (OFs) of density. By definition, OFs are those which depend only implicitly on the density, via an explicit formulation in terms of Kohn-Sham orbitals. Typical examples are the XC functionals arising from the Perdew-Zunger self-interaction correction (PZSIC). Formally, via Kohn-Sham equations, the implementation of OFs must be performed by means of the optimized effective potential method (OEP), which is known by requiring an excessive computational effort even when dealing with few electrons systems. Here, we proceed a systematical investigation aiming to simplify or avoid the OEP procedure, taking as reference the implementation of the PZSIC correction applied to one-dimensional Hubbard chains.     

The spin effect in zinc-blende CdEuS and CdEuSe: GGA and GGA+U studies

We have investigated the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of substitutional europium rare earth impurity in cubic CdS and CdSe by employing the ab-initio method. Calculations were performed by using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals (FP-L/APW+lo) method within the framework of spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT). The electronic exchange-correlation energy is described by generalized gradient approximation GGA and GGA+U (U is the Hubbard correction). The GGA+U method is applied to the rare-earth 4f states. We have calculated the lattice parameters, bulk modulii, the first pressure derivatives of the bulk modulii and the cohesive energies. The calculated densities of states presented in this study identify the metallic behavior of CdEuS and CdEuSe when we use the GGA scheme, whereas when we use the GGA+U, we see that these compounds are half-metallic.