Development of time-dependent density functional theory in chemical and solid-state physics

Qinghong Kou

Eberhard K. U. Gross

Miguel A. L. Marques, Neepa T. Maitra, Fernando Nogueira +2 more

Kimberly J. Daas, Steven Crisostomo, Kieron Burke

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is a standard approach for calculating optical excitations of molecules and solids, while ensemble DFT (EDFT) is a promising alternative under development. We introduce ensemble TDDFT (ETDDFT), a practical theory that combines the two, generalizing both; we ensemble generalize the Gross-Kohn equation and the exchange-correlation kernel of TDDFT, and generalize EDFT to time-dependent problems. We relate coordinate scaling to the adiabatic connection. The new theory provides multiple avenues for constructing and using approximations. We illustrate these on the two-site Hubbard model. We connect our results to the more general case of nonperturbative time dependence.

Aurel Bulgac, Michael McNeil Forbes

Ulf von Barth, Nils Erik Dahlen, Robert van Leeuwen +1 more

In the present work, we propose a theory for obtaining successively better approximations to the linear response functions of time-dependent density or current-density functional theory. The new technique is based on the variational approach to many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) as developed during the sixties and later expanded by us in the mid-nineties. Due to this feature, the resulting response functions obey a large number of conservation laws such as particle and momentum conservation and sum rules. The quality of the obtained results is governed by the physical processes built in through MBPT but also by the choice of variational expressions. We here present several conserving response functions of different sophistication to be used in the calculation of the optical response of solids and nanoscale systems.