Abstract: | We studied several exchange‐only and exchange–correlation energy density functionals in numerical, i.e., basis‐set‐free, nonrelativistic Kohn–Sham calculations for closed‐shell 1S states of atoms and atomic ions with N electrons, where 2≤N≤120. Accurate total energies are presented to serve as reference data for algebraic approaches, as do the numerical Hartree–Fock results, which are also provided. Gradient‐corrected exchange‐only functionals considerably improve the total energies obtained from the usual local density approximation, when compared to the Hartree–Fock results. Such an improvement due to gradient corrections is not seen in general for highest orbital energies, neither for exchange‐only results (to be compared with Hartree–Fock results), nor for exchange–correlation results (to be compared with experimental ionization energies). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 82: 227–241, 2001 |