Quantum density functional theory

Ira N. Levine, Quantum Chemistry, 4th ed., Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1991. (Source for density functional theory.)... 

A comprehensive treatment of density functional theory, an idea that is currently very popular in quantum chemistry. 

Dreizier R M and Gross E K U 1990 Density Functional Theory an Approach to the Quantum Many-body Problem (Berlin Springer)... 

Handy, N.C. Density functional theory. In Quantum mechanical simulation methods for studying biological systems, D. Bicout and M. Field, eds. Springer, Berlin (1996) 1-35. 

Ab initio molecular orbital theory is concerned with predicting the properties of atomic and molecular systems. It is based upon the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics and uses a variety of mathematical transformation and approximation techniques to solve the fundamental equations. This appendix provides an introductory overview of the theory underlying ab initio electronic structure methods. The final section provides a similar overview of the theory underlying Density Functional Theory methods. 

Density functional theory-based methods ultimately derive from quantum mechanics research from the 1920 s, especially the Thomas-Fermi-Dirac model, and from Slater s fundamental work in quantum chemistry in the 1950 s. The DFT approach is based upon a strategy of modeling electron correlation via general functionals of the electron density. 

In addition most of the more tractable approaches in density functional theory also involve a return to the use of atomic orbitals in carrying out quantum mechanical calculations since there is no known means of directly obtaining the functional that captures electron density exactly. The work almost invariably falls back on using basis sets of atomic orbitals which means that conceptually we are back to square one and that the promise of density functional methods to work with observable electron density, has not materialized. 

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. 

Quantum-chemical calculations which utilize the density functional theory (DFT) are now perhaps amongst the most frequently performed because of their relatively low cost and high accuracy. Structural results obtained from DFT based methods are often as good as those derived from MP2 calculations. It is well documented that DFT methods, especially those involving hybrid functionals such as B3LYP, B3P86 and B3PW91, yield reliable... 

In this chapter we have largely relied on computational chemistry, in particular on density-functional theory. Quantum mechanical calculations of a macroscopic piece of metal with various species adsorbed on it are as yet impossible, but it is possible to obtain realistic results on simplified systems. One approach is to simulate the metal by a cluster of 3-30 atoms on which the molecule adsorbs and then describe all the involved orbitals. Many calculations have been performed on this basis with many useful results. Obviously, the cluster must be sufficiently large that the results do not represent an artefact of the particular cluster size chosen, which can be verified by varying the cluster size. 

Suzumura, T., Nakajima, T. and Hirao, K. (1999) Ground-state properties of MH, MCI, and M2 (M—Cu, Ag, and Au) calculated by a scalar relativistic density functional theory International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 75, lVJ-1. ... 

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