Thomas-Fermi electron density

Fig. 1 Exact and Thomas-Fermi electron density n as a function of position z for the Airy gas model with force F = 0.10. The scaling length is 1 = 1.71. The edge region is —/ < z < / and the Thomas-Fermi density is reasonably accurate for z > I- The infinite barrier is at z = 201 = 34.2. The magnitudes of the densities in this figure are valence-electron-like the density parameter Ts (the radius of a sphere containing on average one electron) is about 3.3 at z = I and about 1.3 at z = 10 (atomic units)...

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 this section we will approach the question which is at the very heart of density functional theory can we possibly replace the complicated N-electron wave function with its dependence on 3N spatial plus N spin variables by a simpler quantity, such as the electron density After using plausibility arguments to demonstrate that this seems to be a sensible thing to do, we introduce two early realizations of this idea, the Thomas-Fermi model and Slater s approximation of Hartree-Fock exchange defining the X(/ method. The discussion in this chapter will prepare us for the next steps, where we will encounter physically sound reasons why the density is really all we need. 

Actually, the first attempts to use the electron density rather than the wave function for obtaining information about atomic and molecular systems are almost as old as is quantum mechanics itself and date back to the early work of Thomas, 1927 and Fermi, 1927. In the present context, their approach is of only historical interest. We therefore refrain from an in-depth discussion of the Thomas-Fermi model and restrict ourselves to a brief summary of the conclusions important to the general discussion of DFT. The reader interested in learning more about this approach is encouraged to consult the rich review literature on this subject, for example by March, 1975, 1992 or by Parr and Yang, 1989. 

At the center of the approach taken by Thomas and Fermi is a quantum statistical model of electrons which, in its original formulation, takes into account only the kinetic energy while treating the nuclear-electron and electron-electron contributions in a completely classical way. In their model Thomas and Fermi arrive at the following, very simple expression for the kinetic energy based on the uniform electron gas, a fictitious model system of constant electron density (more information on the uniform electron gas will be given in Section 6.4) ... 

In the Thomas-Fermi model,49 the kinetic energy density of the electron gas is written as... 

For liquid metals, one has to set up density functionals for the electrons and for the particles making up the positive background (ion cores). Since the electrons are to be treated quantum mechanically, their density functional will not be the same as that used for the ions. The simplest quantum statistical theories of electrons, such as the Thomas-Fermi and Thomas-Fermi-Dirac theories, write the electronic energy as the integral of an energy density e(n), a function of the local density n. Then, the actual density is found by minimizing e(n) + vn, where v is the potential energy. Such... 

The universal function x(x) obtained by numerical integration and valid for all neutral atoms decreases monotonically. The electron density is similar for all atoms, except for a different length scale, which is determined by the quantity b and proportional to Z. The density is poorly determined at both small and large values of r. However, since most electrons in complex atoms are at intermediate distances from the nucleus the Thomas-Fermi model is useful for calculating quantities that depend on the average electron density, such as the total energy. The Thomas-Fermi model therefore cannot account for the periodic properties of atoms, but provides a good estimate of initial fields used in more elaborate calculations like those to be discussed in the next section. 

The electronic wave function of an n-electron molecule is defined in 3n-dimensional configuration space, consistent with any conceivable molecular geometry. If the only aim is to characterize a molecule of fixed Born-Oppenheimer geometry the amount of information contained in the molecular wave function is therefore quite excessive. It turns out that the three-dimensional electron density function contains adequate information to uniquely determine the ground-state electronic properties of the molecule, as first demonstrated by Hohenberg and Kohn [104]. The approach is equivalent to the Thomas-Fermi model of an atom applied to molecules. 

Beginning way back in the 20s, Thomas and Fermi had put forward a theory using just the diagonal element of the first-order density matrix, the electron density itself. This so-called statistical theory totally failed for chemistry because it could not account for the existence of molecules. Nevertheless, in 1968, after years of doing wonders with various free-electron-like descriptions of molecular electron distributions, the physicist John Platt wrote [2] We must find an equation for, or a way of computing directly, total electron density. [This was very soon after Hohenberg and Kohn, but Platt certainly was not aware of HK by that time he had left physics.]... 

The Thomas-Fermi (TF) model (1927) for a homogeneous electron gas provides the underpinnings of modern DFT. In the following discussion, it will be shown that the model generates several useful concepts, relates the electron density to the potential, and gives a universal differential equation for the direct calculation of electron density. The two main assumptions of the TF model are as follows ... 

Since the early days of quantum mechanics, the wave function theory has proven to be very successful in describing many different quantum processes and phenomena. However, in many problems of quantum chemistry and solid-state physics, where the dimensionality of the systems studied is relatively high, ab initio calculations of the structure of atoms, molecules, clusters, and crystals, and their interactions are very often prohibitive. Hence, alternative formulations based on the direct use of the probability density, gathered under what is generally known as the density matrix theory [1], were also developed since the very beginning of the new mechanics. The independent electron approximation or Thomas-Fermi model, and the Hartree and Hartree-Fock approaches are former statistical models developed in that direction [2]. These models can be considered direct predecessors of the more recent density functional theory (DFT) [3], whose principles were established by Hohenberg,... 

The shape function had a role in theoretical chemistry and physics long before it was named by Parr and Bartolotti. For example, in x-ray measurements of the electron density, what one actually measures is the shape function—the relative abundance of electrons at different locations in the molecule. Determining the actual electron density requires calibration to a standard with known electron density. On the theoretical side, the shape function appears early in the history of Thomas-Fermi theory. For example, the Majorana-Fermi-Amaldi approximation to the exchange potential is just [3,4]... 

In the Thomas-Fermi theory (March 1957), the electrostatic potential at r is related to the electron density of a neutral atom by the density functional... 

Hohenberg and Kohn have proved generally that the total ground state energy E of a collection of electrons in the presence of an externally applied potential (e.g. the valence electrons in the presence of the periodic potential due to the cores in a lattice), when no net magnetic moment is present, depends only on the average density of electrons n(R). By this proof, n(R) becomes the fundamental variable of the system (as it is in the Thomas-Fermi theory ). Variational minimization of the most general form of E, with respect to n lends to the Hartree-Fock equations formalism. 

However, the major obstacle lies in the fundamental quest how to express the DM1 in terms of a given density without solving Eq. (10) for orbitals. If this can be done, all terms in the HKUEDF will be accmately approximated. Consequently, the GS energy and density of a system with a fixed number of electrons can be obtained via solving a single Thomas-Fermi-Hohenberg-Kohn (TF-HK) equation ... 

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