Perspective on “Inhomogeneous electron gas”

Abstract

The Hohenberg—Kohn theorems in “Inhomogeneous electron gas” established a whole new perspective for the study of electronic structure theory and marked the birth of modern density functional theory (DFT). In our view, DFT and wavefunction theories complement each other. Starting with the invention of the Kohn—Sham method a fruitful synthesis of DFT and wavefunction theories took place and the most powerful computational tools currently available are combinations of both methods. The Hohenberg—Kohn theorems inspire the quest for simple density functionals of increased accuracy. We believe that the synthesis of accurate density functionals and computationally efficient wavefunction methods will continue to dominate electronic structure theory.