Density functional theory principles

In 1985 Car and Parrinello invented a method [111-113] in which molecular dynamics (MD) methods are combined with first-principles computations such that the interatomic forces due to the electronic degrees of freedom are computed by density functional theory [114-116] and the statistical properties by the MD method. This method and related ab initio simulations have been successfully applied to carbon [117], silicon [118-120], copper [121], surface reconstruction [122-128], atomic clusters [129-133], molecular crystals [134], the epitaxial growth of metals [135-140], and many other systems for a review see Ref. 113. 

The precursor of such atomistic studies is a description of atomic interactions or, generally, knowledge of the dependence of the total energy of the system on the positions of the atoms. In principle, this is available in ab-initio total energy calculations based on the loc density functional theory (see, for example, Pettifor and Cottrell 1992). However, for extended defects, such as dislocations and interfaces, such calculations are only feasible when the number of atoms included into the calculation is well below one hundred. Hence, only very special cases can be treated in this framework and, indeed, the bulk of the dislocation and interfacial... 

An important conceptual, or even philosophical, difference between the orbital/wavefunction methods and the density functional methods is that, at least in principle, the density functional methods do not appeal to orbitals. In the former case the theoretical entities are completely unobservable whereas electron density invoked by density functional theories is a genuine observable. Experiments to observe electron densities have been routinely conducted since the development of X-ray and other diffraction techniques (Coppens, 2001).18... 

Time-Dependent Variational Principle in Density Functional Theory... 

Assuming that substituted Sb at the surface may work as catalytic active site as well as W, First-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed with Becke-Perdew [7, 9] functional to evaluate the binding energy between p-xylene and catalyst. Scalar relativistic effects were treated with the energy-consistent pseudo-potentials for W and Sb. However, the binding strength with p-xylene is much weaker for Sb (0.6 eV) than for W (2.4 eV), as shown in Fig. 4. 

We shall illustrate the applicability of the GvdW(S) functional above by considering the case of gas-liquid surface tension for the Lennard-Jones fluid. This will also introduce the variational principle by which equilibrium properties are most efficiently found in a density functional theory. Suppose we assume the profile to be of step function shape, i.e., changing abruptly from liquid to gas density at a plane. In this case the binding energy integrals in Ey can be done analytically and we get for the surface tension [9]... 

Prospecting Lighting Applications with Ligand Field Tools and Density Functional Theory A First-Principles Account of the 4f7-4f65d1 Luminescence of CsMgBr3 Eu2+... 

In order to connect this variational principle to density functional theory we perform the search defined in equation (4-13) in two separate steps first, we search over the subset of all the infinitely many antisymmetric wave functions Px that upon quadrature yield a particular density px (under the constraint that the density integrates to the correct number of electrons). The result of this search is the wave function vFxin that yields the lowest... 

Are there any remedies in sight within approximate Kohn-Sham density functional theory to get correct energies connected with physically reasonable densities, i. e., without having to use wrong, that is symmetry broken, densities In many cases the answer is indeed yes. But before we consider the answer further, we should point out that the question only needs to be asked in the context of the approximate functionals for degenerate states and related problems outlined above, an exact density functional in principle also exists. The real-life solution is to employ the non-interacting ensemble-Vs representable densities p intro-... 

Principles and Applications of Density Functional Theory in Inorganic Chemistry II... 

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