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Hohenberg-Kohn theorems for interactions, spin and temperature

Louis Garrigue

Published Jan 1, 2019• 6 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We prove Hohenberg-Kohn theorems for several models of quantum mechanics. First, we show that for possibly degenerate systems of several types of particles, the pair correlation functions of any ground state contain the information of the interactions and of the external potentials. Then, in the presence of the Zeeman interaction, a strong constraint on external fields is derived for systems having the same ground state densities and magnetizations. Next, we prove that the density and the entropy of a ground state contain the information of both the imposed external potential and temperature. Eventually, we conclude that at positive temperature, Hohenberg-Kohn theorems generically hold.

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On the Necessary Conditions for the Validity of the Hohenberg-Kohn Theorem

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It is shown that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma and theorem are direct consequences of the statement that the ground state energy (or free energy) of a system of interacting particles in an external field is a unique functional of the potential of this field. This means that, if the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is valid, the nonuniform density in the equilibrium system and the external field potential are biunique functionals. In this case, the nonuniform density is intimately related to the inverse response function. On this basis, a regular procedure can be constructed for determining the density functional for the free energy or ground state energy.

arXiv:1008.2455•Aug 14, 2010•0 citations
We prove Hohenberg-Kohn theorems for several models of quantum mechanics. First, we show that for possibly degenerate systems of several types of particles, the pair correlation functions of any ground state contain the information of the interactions and of the external potentials. Then, in the presence of the Zeeman interaction, a strong constraint on external fields is derived for systems having the same ground state densities and magnetizations. Next, we prove that the density and the entropy of a ground state contain the information of both the imposed external potential and temperature. Eventually, we conclude that at positive temperature, Hohenberg-Kohn theorems generically hold.
The Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is extended to the case that the external potential is nonlocal. It is shown that, in this more general case, a nondegenerate ground-state wave function is a universal functional of the one-particle density kernel $\ensuremath{\mu}(x,{x}^{\ensuremath{'}})$, but probably not of the particle density $n(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}})=\ensuremath{\Sigma}{s}^{}\ensuremath{\mu}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}s,\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}s)$. The variational equations for the local and nonlocal cases are compared. The former must be replaced by a variational equation for an equivalent system of noninteracting particles, following a prescription of Kohn and Sham, in order to obtain a Schr\"odinger-like form, and contains only local potentials. The latter may be obtained directly in Schr\"odinger-like form, but the exchange-correlation potential is nonlocal. If the nonlocal pseudo-Hamiltonian exists [i.e., if the functional derivative $\frac{\ensuremath{\delta}E}{\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\mu}(x,{x}^{\ensuremath{'}})}$ exists for a nondegenerate ground-state density kernel], then the eigenfunctions of the pseudo-Hamiltonian are natural spin orbitals, and all partially occupied orbitals ($0<〈{\ensuremath{\varphi}}_{i}|\ensuremath{\mu}|{\ensuremath{\varphi}}_{i}〉<1$) belong to the same degenerate eigenvalue of the pseudo-Hamiltonian. Finally, it is shown, as a corollary of Coleman's theorem for NNN-representable density kernels, that any finite non-negative differentiable function is an NNN-representable particle density.
In this article, we examine Hohenberg–Kohn theorems for Current Density Functional Theory, that is, generalizations of the classical Hohenberg–Kohn theorem that includes both electric and magnetic fields. In the Vignale and Rasolt formulation (Vignale and Rasolt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 1987, 59, 2360), which uses the paramagnetic current density, we address the issue of degenerate ground states and prove that the ensemble‐representable particle and paramagnetic current density determine the degenerate ground states. For the formulation that uses the total current density, we note that the proof suggested by Diener (Diener, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter. 1991, 3, 9417) is unfortunately not correct. Furthermore, we give a proof that the magnetic field and the ensemble‐representable particle density determine the scalar and vector potentials up to a gauge transformation. This generalizes the result of Grayce and Harris (Grayce and Harris, Phys. Rev. A 1994, 50, 3089) to the case of degenerate ground states. We moreover prove the existence of a positive wavefunction that is the ground state of infinitely many different Hamiltonians. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Hohenberg-Kohn (HK) theorem is one of the most fundamental theorems of quantum mechanics, and constitutes the basis for the very successful density-functional approach to inhomogeneous interacting many-particle systems. Here we show that in formulations of density-functional theory (DFT) that employ more than one density variable, applied to systems with a degenerate ground state, there is a subtle loophole in the HK theorem, as all mappings between densities, wave functions, and potentials can break down. Two weaker theorems which we prove here, the joint-degeneracy theorem and the internal-energy theorem, restore the internal, total, and exchange-correlation energy functionals to the extent needed in applications of DFT to atoms, molecules, and solids. The joint-degeneracy theorem constrains the nature of possible degeneracies in general many-body systems.
We analyze the ground-state energy and correlation energy of the Heisenberg model as a function of spin, both in the ferromagnetic and the antiferromagnetic case, and in one, two and three dimensions. First, we present a comparative analysis of known expressions for the ground-state energy E0(S){E}_{0}(S)E0​(S) of homogeneous Heisenberg models. In the one-dimensional antiferromagnetic case we propose an improved expression for E0(S),{E}_{0}(S),E0​(S), which takes into account Bethe-ansatz data for S=1/2.S=1/2.S=1/2. Next, we consider inhomogeneous Heisenberg models (e.g., exposed to spatially varying external fields). We prove a Hohenberg-Kohn-like theorem stating that in this case the ground-state energy is a functional of the spin distribution and that this distribution encapsulates the entire physics of the system, regardless of the external fields. Building on this theorem, we then propose a local-density-type approximation that allows us to utilize the results obtained for homogeneous systems in inhomogeneous situations too. We conjecture a scaling law for the dependence of the correlation functional on dimensionality, which is well satisfied by existing numerical data. Finally, we investigate the importance of the spin-correlation energy by comparing results obtained with the proposed correlation functional to ones from an uncorrelated mean-field calculation, taking as our example a linear spin-density wave state.
The analysis in this paper shows that the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is the constellation of two statements: (i) the mathematically rigorous Hohenberg-Kohn lemma, which demonstrates that the same ground-state density cannot correspond to two different potentials of an external field, and (ii) the hypothesis of the existence of the universal density functional. Based on the obtained explicit expression for the nonrel-ativistic particle energy in a local external field, we prove that the energy of the system of more than two non-interacting electrons cannot be a functional of the inhomogeneous density. This result is generalized to the system of interacting electrons. It means that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma cannot provide justification of the universal density functional for fermions. At the same time, statements of the density functional theory remain valid when considering any number of noninteracting ground-state bosons due to the Bose condensation effect. In the framework of the density matrix functional theory, the hypothesis of the existence of the universal density matrix functional corresponds to the cases of noninteracting particles and to interaction in the Hartree-Fock approximation.
It is shown that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma and theorem are direct consequences of the statement that the ground state energy (or free energy) of a system of interacting particles in an external field is a unique functional of the potential of this field. This means that, if the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is valid, the nonuniform density in the equilibrium system and the external field potential are biunique functionals. In this case, the nonuniform density is intimately related to the inverse response function. On this basis, a regular procedure can be constructed for determining the density functional for the free energy or ground state energy.