Local density approximation physics

Local Density Approximation in Quantum Chemistry and Solid State Physics J. P. Dahl,... 

Parr, R.G. Aspects of Density Functional Theory . In Local Density Approximations in Quantum Chemistry and Solid State Physics , Dahl, J.P. and Avery, J., Eds. Plenum Press New York, 1984, pp. 21-31. 

Perdew, J.P. and Cole, L.A. (1982) On the local density approximation for Breit interaction. Joumoi of Physics C, 15, L905-L908. 

Density-functional theory, developed 25 years ago (Hohenberg and Kohn, 1964 Kohn and Sham, 1965) has proven very successful for the study of a wide variety of problems in solid state physics (for a review, see Martin, 1985). Interactions (beyond the Hartree potential) between electrons are described with an exchange and correlation potential, which is expressed as a functional of the charge density. For practical purposes, this functional needs to be approximated. The local-density approximation (LDA), in which the exchange and correlation potential at a particular point is only a function of the charge density at that same point, has been extensively tested and found to provide a reliable description of a wide variety of solid-state properties. Choices of numerical cutoff parameters or integration schemes that have to be made at various points in the density-functional calculations are all amenable to explicit covergence tests. 

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. 

Various reasons have been advanced for the relative accuracy of spin-polarized Kohn-Sham calculations based on local (spin) density approximations for E c- However, two very favourable aspects of this procedure are clearly operative. First, the Kohn-Sham orbitals control the physical class of density functions which are allowed (in contrast, for example, to simpler Thomas-Fermi theories). Second, local density approximations for are mild-mannered,... 

Werden SH, Davidson ER (1984) In Dahl JP, Avery J (eds) Local density approximations in quantum chemistry and solid state physics. Plenum, New York, p 33... 

After the discovery of the relativistic wave equation for the electron by Dirac in 1928, it seems that all the problems in condensed-matter physics become a matter of mathematics. However, the theoretical calculations for surfaces were not practical until the discovery of the density-functional formalism by Hohenberg and Kohn (1964). Although it is already simpler than the Hartree-Fock formalism, the form of the exchange and correlation interactions in it is still too complicated for practical problems. Kohn and Sham (1965) then proposed the local density approximation, which assumes that the exchange and correlation interaction at a point is a universal function of the total electron density at the same point, and uses a semiempirical analytical formula to represent such universal interactions. The resulting equations, the Kohn-Sham equations, are much easier to handle, especially by using modern computers. This method has been the standard approach for first-principles calculations for solid surfaces. 

There are several problems in the physics of quantum systems whose importance is attested to by the time and effort that have been expended in search of their solutions. A class of such problems involves the treatment of interparticle correlations with the electron gas in an atom, a molecule (cluster) or a solid having attracted significant attention by quantum chemists and solid-state physicists. This has led to the development of a large number of theoretical frameworks with associated computational procedures for the study of this problem. Among others, one can mention the local-density approximation (LDA) to density functional theory (DFT) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], the various forms of the Hartree-Fock (HF) approximation, 2, 6, 7], the so-called GW approximation, 9, 10], and methods based on the direct study of two-particle quantities[ll, 12, 13], such as two-particle reduced density matrices[14, 15, 16, 17, 18], and the closely related theory of geminals[17, 18, 19, 20], and configuration interactions (Cl s)[21]. These methods, and many of their generalizations and improvements[22, 23, 24] have been discussed in a number of review articles and textbooks[2, 3, 25, 26]. 

---