Total atomic energies using indirect-path methods.

Abstract

Indirect path methods, viz., the {ital staircase} and the {ital ladder} methods of Levy {ital et} {ital al}. [Phys. Rev. A {bold 36}, R249 (1987)], have been employed to estimate the nonrelativistic ground-state energies of neutral atoms He-Ar, within the local-exchange prescription of Harbola and Sahni. We demonstrate that the total atomic energies thus estimated are comparable to their Hartree-Fock staircase counterparts and become superior to the latter for {ital Z}{ge}8. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}