In a recent paper A. Akbari, N. H. March, and A. Rubio [Phys. Rev. A 76, 032510 (2007)] investigated the one-electron reduced density matrix and the momentum density of several two-electron model atoms, including Hooke's atom. The method used by the authors for deriving an integral form of the momentum density is in fact the most suited for deriving a closed-form expression of the exact reciprocal form factor, in a special case. This function is important inasmuch as it reflects the off-diagonal side of the exact reduced density matrix.
The detailed nature of the correlated first-order density matrix for the model atoms in the title for arbitrary interparticle interaction
u(r12) is studied. One representation with contracted information is first explored by constructing the momentum density $\ensuremath{\rho}(\mathbf{p})$ in terms of the wave function of the relative motion, say ${\ensuremath{\Psi}}_{R}({r}_{12})$, which naturally depends on the choice of
u(r12). For
u(r12)=e2∕r12, the so-called Hookean atom, and for the inverse square law $u({r}_{12})=\ensuremath{\lambda}∕{r}_{12}^{2}$, plots are presented of the above density $\ensuremath{\rho}(\mathbf{p})$ in momentum space. The correlated kinetic energy is recovered from averaging
p2∕2m,
m denoting the electron mass, with respect to $\ensuremath{\rho}(\mathbf{p})$. The second method developed is in coordinate space and expands the density matrix $\ensuremath{\gamma}({\mathbf{r}}_{1},{\mathbf{r}}_{2})$ in Legendre polynomials, using relative coordinate ${\mathbf{r}}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{\mathbf{r}}_{2}$, center-of-mass coordinate
(r1+r2)∕2 and the angle, $\ensuremath{\theta}$ say, between these two vectors. For the Moshinsky atom in which
u(r12)=21kr122 only the
s term
(l=0) contributes to the Legendre polynomial expansion. The specific example we present of the inverse square law model is shown to be characterized by the low-order terms
(s+d) of the Legendre expansion. The Wigner function is finally calculated analytically for both Moshinsky and inverse square law models.
We study the properties of the Hooke's law correlation energy (
Ec), defined as the correlation energy when two electrons interact via a harmonic potential in a
D-dimensional space. More precisely, we investigate the
1S ground-state properties of two model systems: the Moshinsky atom (in which the electrons move in a quadratic potential) and the spherium model (in which they move on the surface of a sphere). A comparison with their Coulombic counterparts is made that highlights the main differences of the
Ec in both the weakly and strongly correlated limits. Moreover, we show that the Schr\"odinger equation of the spherium model is exactly solvable for two values of the dimension (
D=1and3) and that the exact wave function is based on Mathieu functions.
In both molecular physics and condensed matter theory, deeper understanding of the correlation energy density
ϵc(r) remains a high priority. By adopting L\"owdin's definition of correlation energy as the difference between the exact and the Hartree-Fock values, here we propose two alternative routes to define this. One of these involves both exact and Hartree-Fock (HF) wave functions, while the second requires a coupling constant integration. As an exact analytical example of the first route, we treat the two-electron model atom of Moshinsky, for which both confinement potential and interactions are harmonic. Though the correlation energy density
ϵc(r) is known analytically, we also investigate numerically its relation to the exact ground-state density in this example.
The Hooke's-law atom (hookium) provides an exactly soluble model for a two-electron atom in which the nuclear-electron Coulombic attraction has been replaced by a harmonic one. Starting from the known exact position-space wave function for the ground state of hookium, we present the momentum-space wave function. We also look at the intracules, two-electron probability distributions, for hookium in position, momentum, and phase space. These are compared with the Hartree-Fock results and the Coulomb holes (the difference between the exact and Hartree-Fock intracules) in position, momentum, and phase space are examined. We then compare these results with analogous results for the ground state of helium using a simple, explicitly correlated wave function.
Moshinsky introduced an exactly soluble model of a two-electron atom consisting of two spin-
21 particles interacting via harmonic forces and moving in a harmonic-oscillator potential. Here, the exact ground-state density $\ensuremath{\rho}(r)$ is related to the (also analytically known) Hartree-Fock density ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{\mathrm{HF}}(r).$ The generalization to the off-diagonal matrix $\ensuremath{\gamma}(\mathbf{r},{\mathbf{r}}^{\ensuremath{'}})$ is then effected, this being related to the idempotent ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathrm{HF}}(\mathbf{r},{\mathbf{r}}^{\ensuremath{'}})/2.$ This exact information on this ``model atom'' prompts us to propose an approximate form of $\ensuremath{\gamma}(\mathbf{r},{\mathbf{r}}^{\ensuremath{'}})$ for the He-like ions, the
H2 molecule and, in general, all two-electron systems. $\ensuremath{\gamma}(\mathbf{r},{\mathbf{r}}^{\ensuremath{'}})$ is constructed solely from the exact $\ensuremath{\rho}(\mathbf{r})$ and its Hartree-Fock counterpart. Some detailed treatment of the two-electron Hookean atom with spring constant
k=1/4 (atomic units) is also presented.