Quantal density-functional theory of the density amplitude: Application to atoms

Abstract

Local effective potential theory of electronic structure is the mapping from a system of electrons in an external field to one of noninteracting fermions or bosons with the same electronic density. The energy and ionization potential are also thereby determined. The mappings may be achieved via either quantal density-functional theory (QDFT) or Hohenberg-Kohn-Sham density-functional theory (HKS-DFT). The wave function for the model fermionic system is a Slater determinant of spin orbitals, whereas that for the model bosons is the density amplitude. In the QDFT mappings, the contributions of the electron correlations due to the Pauli exclusion principle, Coulomb repulsion and correlation-kinetic effects are separately delineated. It has been proved via QDFT that the contribution of Pauli and Coulomb correlations to these model systems is the same; the difference lies solely in their correlation-kinetic component. In this paper, we apply the QDFT of the density amplitude to study the mapping to the bosonic model. The application is to atoms and performed at the Hartree-Fock theory level of electron correlations. A principal conclusion is that correlation-kinetic effects play a significant role in the mapping to the bosonic model, whereas they are negligible in the mapping to the model fermions. For the bosonic model, this contribution increases with electron number, becoming nearly as significant as those due to the corresponding electron-interaction (the sum of the Hartree and Pauli) term. The significance of the correlation-kinetic effects will be further enhanced on the inclusion of Coulomb correlations and the corresponding correlation-kinetic contributions. The consequences of these conclusions for the HKS-DFT of the density amplitude are discussed, as are directions for future work.