We re-adapt a spectral renormalization method, introduced in nonlinear optics, to solve the Kohn-Sham (KS) equations of density functional theory (DFT), with a focus on functionals based on the strictly-correlated electrons (SCE) regime, which are particularly challenging to converge. Important aspects of the method are: (i) the eigenvalues and the density are computed simultaneously; (ii) it converges using randomized initial guesses; (iii) easy to implement. Using this method we could converge for the first time the Kohn-Sham equations with functionals that include the next leading term in the strong-interaction limit of density functional theory, the so-called zero-point energy (ZPE) functional as well as with an interaction-strength-interpolation (ISI) functional that includes both the exact SCE and ZPE terms. This work is the first building block for future studies on quantum systems confined in low dimensions with different statistics and long-range repulsions, such as localization properties of fermions and bosons with strong long-range repulsive interactions in the presence of a random external potential.
We use the exact strong-interaction limit of the Hohenberg-Kohn energy density functional to approximate the exchange-correlation energy of the restricted Kohn-Sham scheme. Our approximation corresponds to a highly non-local density functional whose functional derivative can be easily constructed, thus transforming exactly, in a physically transparent way, an important part of the electron-electron interaction into an effective local one-body potential. We test our approach on quasi-one-dimensional systems, showing that it captures essential features of strong correlation that restricted Kohn-…
Gould and Pittalis [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 016401 (2019)] recently revealed a density-driven (DD) correlation energy that is specific to many-electron ensembles and must be accounted for by approximations. We derive in this Letter a general and simpler expression in terms of the ensemble weights, the ensemble Kohn-Sham (KS) orbitals, and their linear response to variations in the ensemble weights. As no additional state-driven KS systems are needed, its evaluation is greatly simplified. We confirm the importance of DD effects and introduce a direct and promising route to approximations.
We present a rigorous formulation of generalized Kohn-Sham density-functional theory. This provides a straightforward Kohn-Sham description of many-body systems based not only on particle-density but also on any other observable. We illustrate the formalism for the case of a particle-density based description of a nonrelativistic many-electron system. We obtain a simple diagrammatic expansion of the exchange-correlation functional in terms of Kohn-Sham single-particle orbitals and energies; develop systematic Kohn-Sham formulation for one-electron propagators and many-body excitation energies.…
An effective action approach to Kohn-Sham density functional theory is used to illustrate how the exact Green's function can be calculated in terms of the Kohn-Sham Green's function. An example based on Skyrme energy functionals shows that single-particle Kohn-Sham spectra can be improved by adding sources used to construct the energy functional.
We use the exact strong-interaction limit of the Hohenberg-Kohn energy density functional to construct an approximation for the exchange-correlation term of the Kohn-Sham approach. The resulting exchange-correlation potential is able to capture the features of the strongly-correlated regime without breaking the spin or any other symmetry. In particular, it shows "bumps" (or barriers) that give rise to charge localization at low densities and that are a well-known key feature of the exact Kohn-Sham potential for strongly-correlated systems. Here we illustrate this approach for the study of both…
We consider the extension of the standard single-determinant Kohn-Sham method to the case of a multiconfiguration trial wavefunction. By applying the rigorous Kohn-Sham method to this case, we construct the proper interacting and non-interacting energy functionals. Following the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem for both energy functionals, we derive the corre-sponding multiconfiguration Kohn-Sham equations. At the end of the analysis we show that, at the ground state, the multiconfiguration wavefunction must collapse into a single-determinant wavefunction, equal to the regular KS wavefunction. We also d…
We formulate a set of equations that facilitate an exact numerical solution of the Kohn-Sham potential for a finite Hubbard chain with nearest neighbour hopping and arbitrary site potentials. The approach relies on a mapping of the non-interacting Kohn-Sham ground state wave function onto the exact interacting system wavefunction and two interconnected self-consistent cycles. The self-consistent cycles are performed within the framework of the Kohn-Sham non-interacting system without any direct reference to the interacting system. The first self-consistent cycle updates the mapping of the non-…
The reconstruction of the exchange-correlation potential from accurate ab initio electron densities can provide insights into the limitations of the currently available approximate functionals and provide guidance for devising improved approximations for density-functional theory (DFT). For open-shell systems, the spin density is introduced as an additional fundamental variable in Spin-DFT. Here, we consider the reconstruction of the corresponding unrestricted Kohn-Sham potentials from accurate ab initio spin densities. In particular, we investigate whether it is possible to reconstruct the sp…
By introducing a set of auxiliary equations representing a many-body system, we have derived an extension of the Kohn-Sham scheme for the density functional theory. These equations consist of a Kohn-Sham-type equation determining single-particle orbitals and an eigen-value equation for an effective many-body problem. A variational method similar to the Kohn-Sham technique was utilized to derive effective interactions as well as effective potentials without artificial substitution of a Hubbard-type interaction and a mean-field correction in the energy functional. The second equation is describe…
We formulate the Kohn-Sham equations for the fractional quantum Hall effect by mapping the original electron problem into an auxiliary problem of composite fermions that experience a density dependent effective magnetic field. Self-consistent solutions of the KS equations demonstrate that our formulation captures not only configurations with non-uniform densities but also topological properties such as fractional charge and fractional braid statistics for the quasiparticles excitations. This method should enable a realistic modeling of the edge structure, the effect of disorder, spin physics, …
The exact static and time-dependent Kohn-Sham (KS) exchange-correlation (xc) potential is extremely challenging to approximate as it is a local multiplicative potential that depends on the electron density everywhere in the system. The KS approach can be generalised by allowing part of the potential to be spatially nonlocal. We take this nonlocal part to be that of unrestricted Hartree-Fock theory. The additional local correlation potential in principle ensures that the single-particle density exactly equals the many-body density. In our case, the local correlation potential is predominantly n…
We present analytic expressions for the exact density functional and Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian of simple tight-binding models of correlated electrons. These are the single- and double-site versions of the Anderson, Hubbard and spinless fermion models. The exact exchange and correlation potentials are fully non-local. The analytic expressions allow to compare the Kohn-Sham eigenstates of exact density functional theory with the many-body quasi-particle states of these correlated-electron systems. The exact Kohn-Sham spectrum describes correctly many of the non-trivial features of the many-body quas…
We address low-density two-dimensional circular quantum dots with spin-restricted Kohn-Sham density functional theory. By using an exchange-correlation functional that encodes the effects of the strongly-correlated regime (and that becomes exact in the limit of infinite correlation), we are able to reproduce characteristic phenomena such as the formation of ring structures in the electronic total density, preserving the fundamental circular symmetry of the system. The observation of this and other well-known effects in Wigner-localized quantum dots such as the flattening of the addition energy…
The dissociation of molecules, even the most simple hydrogen molecule, cannot be described accurately within density functional theory because none of the currently available functionals accounts for strong on-site correlation. This problem has led to a discussion of properties that the local Kohn-Sham potential has to satisfy in order to correctly describe strongly correlated systems. We derive an analytic expression for this potential at the dissociation limit and show that the numerical calculations for a one-dimensional two electron model system indeed approach and reach this limit. It is …
The most intriguing properties of emergent materials are typically consequences of highly correlated quantum states of their electronic degrees of freedom. Describing those materials from first principles remains a challenge for modern condensed matter theory. Here, we review, apply and discuss novel approaches to spectral properties of correlated electron materials, assessing current day predictive capabilities of electronic structure calculations. In particular, we focus on the recent Screened Exchange Dynamical Mean-Field Theory scheme and its relation to generalized Kohn-Sham theory. These…
We propose a way to improve energy density functionals (EDFs) in the density functional theory based on the combination of the inverse Kohn--Sham method and the density functional perturbation theory. Difference between the known EDF and the exact one is treated as the first-order perturbation. As benchmark calculations, we reproduce the theoretical exchange and correlation functionals in the local density approximation. Systems of noble-gas atoms are used for benchmark calculations, and the ground-state energies and densities, as well as the functionals, are reproduced with good accuracies.
The asymptotics of the Kohn-Sham (KS) exact exchange potential $V_x(z)$ of a jelliumlike semi-infinite metal is investigated, in the framework of the optimized-effective-potential formalism of density-functional theory. Our numerical calculations clearly show that deep into the vacuum side of the surface $V_x(z) \propto e^2 \ln(az) / z$, with $a$ being a system-dependent constant, thus confirming the analytical calculations reported in Phys. Rev. B {\bf 81}, 121106(R) (2010). A criticism of this work published in Phys. Rev. B {\bf 85}, 115124 (2012) is shown to be incorrect. Our rigorous excha…
A Kohn-Sham density functional approach has recently been developed for the fractional quantum Hall effect, which maps the strongly interacting electrons into a system of weakly interacting composite fermions subject to an exchange correlation potential as well as a density dependent gauge field that mimics the "flux quanta" bound to composite fermions. To get a feel for the role of various terms, we study the behavior of the self-consistent solution as a function of the strength of the exchange correlation potential, which is varied through an {\it ad hoc} multiplicative factor. We find that …
A complete solution to the inverse problem of Kohn-Sham (KS) density functional theory is proposed. Our method consists of two steps. First, the effective KS potential is determined from the ground state density of a given system. Then, the knowledge of the potentials along a path in the space of densities is exploited in a line integration formula to determine numerically the KS energy of that system. A possible choice for the density path is proposed. A benchmark in the case of a simplified yet realistic nuclear system is shown to be successful, so that the method seems promising for future …
We study the Kohn-Sham scheme for the calculation of the steady state linear response to a harmonic perturbation that is turned on adiabatically. Although in general the exact time dependent exchange-correlation potential cannot be expressed as the functional derivative of a universal functional due to the so-called causality paradox, we show that for a harmonic perturbation the exchange-correlation part of the first-order Kohn-Sham potential $v_s^{(1)}(r) \cos(ωt)$ is given by $v_{xc}^{(1)}(r) = δK_{xc}^{(2)}/δn^{(1)}(r)$. $K_{xc}^{(2)}$ is the exchange-correlation part of the second-order qu…
Density functional theory maps an interacting Hamiltonian onto the Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian, an explicitly free model with identical local fermion densities. Using the interaction distance, the minimum distance between the ground state of the interacting system and a generic free fermion state, we quantify the applicability and limitations of the exact Kohn-Sham model in capturing the various properties of the interacting system. As a byproduct, this distance determines the optimal free state that reproduces the entanglement properties of the interacting system as faithfully as possible. The pare…
This work continues a program to systematically generalize the Skyrme Hartree-Fock method for medium and heavy nuclei by applying effective field theory (EFT) methods to Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT). When conventional Kohn-Sham DFT for Coulomb systems is extended beyond the local density approximation, the kinetic energy density tau is sometimes included in energy functionals in addition to the fermion density. However, a local (semi-classical) expansion of tau is used to write the energy as a functional of the density alone, in contrast to the Skyrme approach. The difference is m…
We derive and employ a local potential to represent the Fock exchange operator in electronic single-particle equations. This local Fock-exchange (LFX) potential is very similar to the exact exchange (EXX) potential in density functional theory (DFT). The practical software implementation of the two potentials (LFX and EXX) yields robust and accurate results for a variety of systems (semiconductors, transition metal oxides) where Hartree Fock and popular approximations of DFT typically fail. This includes examples traditionally considered qualitatively inaccessible to calculations that omit cor…
Deriving accurate energy density functional is one of the central problems in condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and quantum chemistry. We propose a novel method to deduce the energy density functional by combining the idea of the functional renormalization group and the Kohn-Sham scheme in density functional theory. The key idea is to solve the renormalization group flow for the effective action decomposed into the mean-field part and the correlation part. Also, we propose a simple practical method to quantify the uncertainty associated with the truncation of the correlation part. By …
