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Physical Review A

Some tests of an approximate density functional for the ground-state kinetic energy of a fermion system

Conyers Herring, Manoj Chopra

Published Jan 1, 1988• 54 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Any proposed approximation to the ground-state kinetic energy of a system of noninteracting fermions in terms of the particle density \ensuremath{\rho}(r) can be used to estimate the potential field v(r) that will give rise to a given \ensuremath{\rho}(r), or the \ensuremath{\rho}(r) that will result from placing a given number of particles in a given v(r). Comparison with exact quantum-mechanical calculations thus gives two possible types of tests for any proposed kinetic-energy functional. This paper reports such tests for a recently proposed nonlocal functional applicable to one-dimensional systems, comparing its predictions for several simple problems not only with the correct answers but also with the predictions of Thomas-Fermi and Thomas-Fermi-Weizs\"acker functionals, to which the new functional proves considerably superior. The comparisons yield useful insights on the virtues and defects of the new functional, and on the directions in which improvements should be sought. Particular attention is devoted to Friedel oscillations and shell structure. It is shown that functionals of the Thomas-Fermi-Weizs\"acker type can never predict multiple maxima in \ensuremath{\rho} if v has only a single minimum and no maxima; the new functional does not have this defect, though it yields density oscillations rather weaker than the exact quantum-mechanical calculations. A natural general inference from the present tests is that any satisfactory kinetic-energy functional must (as ours does) replace the entire Thomas-Fermi term by a nonlocal expression.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.37.31

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Physical Review A•Apr 1, 1989•7 citations
Any proposed approximation to the ground-state kinetic energy of a system of noninteracting fermions in terms of the particle density \ensuremath{\rho}(r) can be used to estimate the potential field v(r) that will give rise to a given \ensuremath{\rho}(r), or the \ensuremath{\rho}(r) that will result from placing a given number of particles in a given v(r). Comparison with exact quantum-mechanical calculations thus gives two possible types of tests for any proposed kinetic-energy functional. This paper reports such tests for a recently proposed nonlocal functional applicable to one-dimensional systems, comparing its predictions for several simple problems not only with the correct answers but also with the predictions of Thomas-Fermi and Thomas-Fermi-Weizs"acker functionals, to which the new functional proves considerably superior. The comparisons yield useful insights on the virtues and defects of the new functional, and on the directions in which improvements should be sought. Particular attention is devoted to Friedel oscillations and shell structure. It is shown that functionals of the Thomas-Fermi-Weizs"acker type can never predict multiple maxima in \ensuremath{\rho} if v has only a single minimum and no maxima; the new functional does not have this defect, though it yields density oscillations rather weaker than the exact quantum-mechanical calculations. A natural general inference from the present tests is that any satisfactory kinetic-energy functional must (as ours does) replace the entire Thomas-Fermi term by a nonlocal expression.
The average-density approximation is used to construct a nonlocal kinetic energy functional for an inhomogeneous two-dimensional Fermi gas. This functional is then used to formulate a Thomas-Fermi-von Weizs\"acker-like theory for the description of the ground-state properties of the system. The quality of the kinetic energy functional is tested by performing a fully self-consistent calculation for an ideal, harmonically confined, two-dimensional system. Good agreement with exact results are found, with the number and kinetic energy densities exhibiting oscillatory structure associated with the nonlocality of the energy functional. Most importantly, this functional shows a marked improvement over the two-dimensional Thomas-Fermi von Weizs\"acker theory, particularly in the vicinity of the classically forbidden region.
In a recent paper [B. P. van Zyl et al., Phys. Rev. A 89, 022503 (2014)], the average density approximation (ADA) was implemented to develop a parameter-free, nonlocal kinetic energy functional to be used in the orbital-free density functional theory of an inhomogeneous, two-dimensional (2D) Fermi gas. In this work, we provide a detailed comparison of self-consistent calculations within the ADA with the exact results of the Kohn-Sham density functional theory and the elementary Thomas-Fermi (TF) approximation. We demonstrate that the ADA for the 2D kinetic energy functional works very well under a wide variety of confinement potentials, even for relatively small particle numbers. Remarkably, the TF approximation for the kinetic energy functional, without any gradient corrections, also yields good agreement with the exact kinetic energy for all confining potentials considered, although at the expense of the spatial and kinetic energy densities exhibiting poor pointwise agreement, particularly near the TF radius. Our findings illustrate that the ADA kinetic energy functional yields accurate results for both the local and global equilibrium properties of an inhomogeneous 2D Fermi gas, without the need for any fitting parameters.
In earlier work, expressions have been constructed for the single-particle kinetic-energy functional ${T}_{s}[\ensuremath{\rho}]$ for independent fermions subject to harmonic confinement in low dimensions, with $\ensuremath{\rho}$ the particle density. Here, the differential equation for $\ensuremath{\rho}$ is first obtained in d dimensions for an arbitrary number of closed shells. Then, by using the known Euler-Lagrange equation, the functional derivative $\ensuremath{\delta}{T}_{s}/\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\rho}(\mathbf{r})$ is constructed. ${T}_{s}[\ensuremath{\rho}]$ itself is proved to take the form of a linear combination of three pieces: (i) a von Weizs\"acker inhomogeneity kinetic energy, but with the original coefficient reduced by a dimensionality factor 1/d,1/d,1/d, (ii) a Thomas-Fermi kinetic energy, and (iii) a truly nonlocal contribution that, however, is shown to involve only the density $\ensuremath{\rho}$ itself and its first derivative. Thus, for this model, which is currently highly relevant to the interpretation of experiments on the evaporative cooling of dilute, and hence almost noninteracting, fermions, a complete density-functional theory now exists.
The kinetic energy, or thermodynamic potential, of a non-interacting Fermion system, as a functional of the non-uniform density pattern evoked by an external potential, serves as a crucial tool in the analysis of interacting system ground states. Examples from classical lattice gas and continuum fluid theory are cited to show that analytic tractability can be dramatically enhanced by the introduction of auxiliary density fields with respect to which a suitable thermodynamic potential is stationary. This strategy is developed for the prototype of one-dimensional spinless Fermions, resulting in an exact highly overcomplete representation. A semi-classical variational ansatz recovers the familiar Thomas-Fermi plus renormalized Weiszacker expression, as well as leading corrections, and a simple extension creates a simple modification of the former. The corresponding 3-dimensional format is set up, and evaluated by extrapolation from the 1-dimensional case.
We derive simple analytical expressions for the particle density $\ensuremath{\rho}(r)$ and the kinetic energy density $\ensuremath{\tau}(r)$ for a system of noninteracting fermions in a ddd-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator potential. We test the Thomas-Fermi (TF, or local-density) approximation for the functional relation $\ensuremath{\tau}[\ensuremath{\rho}]$ using the exact $\ensuremath{\rho}(r)$ and show that it locally reproduces the exact kinetic energy density $\ensuremath{\tau}(r)$, including the shell oscillations, surprisingly well everywhere except near the classical turning point. For the special case of two dimensions (2D), we obtain the unexpected analytical result that the integral of ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\mathrm{TF}}[\ensuremath{\rho}(r)]$ yields the exact total kinetic energy.
From the explicit solution of a two-level problem previously obtained, it is proved that the single-particle kinetic energy density functional ts{t}_{s}ts​[\ensuremath{\rho}] is the density \ensuremath{\rho} times a function solely of the ratio \ensuremath{\rho}'/\ensuremath{\rho}, with \ensuremath{\rho}' the first derivative of \ensuremath{\rho}. For an n-level system with a harmonic-oscillator potential, the form of ts{t}_{s}ts​[\ensuremath{\rho}] is explicitly obtained. Again ts{t}_{s}ts​[\ensuremath{\rho}] involves only \ensuremath{\rho} and \ensuremath{\rho}'; no higher derivatives appear.