Density functional theory Kohn-Sham approach

The application of density functional theory to isolated, organic molecules is still in relative infancy compared with the use of Hartree-Fock methods. There continues to be a steady stream of publications designed to assess the performance of the various approaches to DFT. As we have discussed there is a plethora of ways in which density functional theory can be implemented with different functional forms for the basis set (Gaussians, Slater type orbitals, or numerical), different expressions for the exchange and correlation contributions within the local density approximation, different expressions for the gradient corrections and different ways to solve the Kohn-Sham equations to achieve self-consistency. This contrasts with the situation for Hartree-Fock calculations, wlrich mostly use one of a series of tried and tested Gaussian basis sets and where there is a substantial body of literature to help choose the most appropriate method for incorporating post-Hartree-Fock methods, should that be desired. 

It is a truism that in the past decade density functional theory has made its way from a peripheral position in quantum chemistry to center stage. Of course the often excellent accuracy of the DFT based methods has provided the primary driving force of this development. When one adds to this the computational economy of the calculations, the choice for DFT appears natural and practical. So DFT has conquered the rational minds of the quantum chemists and computational chemists, but has it also won their hearts To many, the success of DFT appeared somewhat miraculous, and maybe even unjust and unjustified. Unjust in view of the easy achievement of accuracy that was so hard to come by in the wave function based methods. And unjustified it appeared to those who doubted the soundness of the theoretical foundations. There has been misunderstanding concerning the status of the one-determinantal approach of Kohn and Sham, which superficially appeared to preclude the incorporation of correlation effects. There has been uneasiness about the molecular orbitals of the Kohn-Sham model, which chemists used qualitatively as they always have used orbitals but which in the physics literature were sometimes denoted as mathematical constructs devoid of physical (let alone chemical) meaning. 

Since the Fock operator is a effective one-electron operator, equation (1-29) describes a system of N electrons which do not interact among themselves but experience an effective potential VHF. In other words, the Slater determinant is the exact wave function of N noninteracting particles moving in the field of the effective potential VHF.5 It will not take long before we will meet again the idea of non-interacting systems in the discussion of the Kohn-Sham approach to density functional theory. 

In the preceding paragraph we have given a detailed survey of the Kohn-Sham approach to density functional theory. Now, we need to discuss some of the relevant properties pertaining to this scheme and how we have to interpret the various quantities it produces. We also will mention some areas connected to Kohn-Sham density functional theory which are still problematic. Before we enter this discussion the reader should be reminded to differentiate carefully between results that apply to the hypothetical situation in which the exact functional ExC and the corresponding potential Vxc are known and the real world in which we have to use approximations to these quantities. 

Recall the central ingredient of the Kohn-Sham approach to density functional theory, i. e., the one-electron KS equations,... 

An alternative approach to conventional methods is the density functional theory (DFT). This theory is based on the fact that the ground state energy of a system can be expressed as a functional of the electron density of that system. This theory can be applied to chemical systems through the Kohn-Sham approximation, which is based, as the Hartree-Fock approximation, on an independent electron model. However, the electron correlation is included as a functional of the density. The exact form of this functional is not known, so that several functionals have been developed. 

The inherent problems associated with the computation of the properties of solids have been reduced by a computational technique called Density Functional Theory. This approach to the calculation of the properties of solids again stems from solid-state physics. In Hartree-Fock equations the N electrons need to be specified by 3/V variables, indicating the position of each electron in space. The density functional theory replaces these with just the electron density at a point, specified by just three variables. In the commonest formalism of the theory, due to Kohn and Sham, called the local density approximation (LDA), noninteracting electrons move in an effective potential that is described in terms of a uniform electron gas. Density functional theory is now widely used for many chemical calculations, including the stabilities and bulk properties of solids, as well as defect formation energies and configurations in materials such as silicon, GaN, and Agl. At present, the excited states of solids are not well treated in this way. 

Theoretical considerations leading to a density functional theory (DFT) formulation of the reaction field (RF) approach to solvent effects are discussed. The first model is based upon isolelectronic processes that take place at the nucleus of the host system. The energy variations are derived from the nuclear transition state (ZTS) model. The solvation energy is expressed in terms of the electrostatic potential at the nucleus of a pseudo atom having a fractional nuclear charge. This procedure avoids the introduction of arbitrary ionic radii in the calculation of insertion energy, since all integrations involved are performed over [O.ooJ The quality of the approximations made are discussed within the frame of the Kohn-Sham formulation of density functional theory. 

The calculation of the induced electron density may be done in the context of the Kohn-Sham approach to density functional theory, because the response of a KS system to a change in the one particle effective potential (r) corresponds to that of a system of non-interacting electrons. 

The preceding approach can be viewed as an orbital representation analogue for a recently proposed Kohn-Sham-based pair-density functional theory [17],... 

The second approach to this problem is to derive orbital-based reformulations of existing algorithms based on the spatial representation of the g-density. The resulting formulations are in the spirit of the orbital-resolved Kohn-Sham approach to density functional theory. 

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