S. Pittalis

Exact Conditions in Finite-Temperature Density-Functional Theory

Density-functional theory (DFT) for electrons at finite temperature is increasingly important in condensed matter and chemistry. The exact conditions that have proven crucial in constraining and constructing accurate approximations for ground-state DFT are generalized to finite temperature, including the adiabatic connection formula. We discuss consequences for functional construction.

Lower bounds on the exchange-correlation energy in reduced dimensions.

Bounds on the exchange-correlation energy of many-electron systems are derived and tested. By using universal scaling properties of the electron-electron interaction, we obtain the exponent of the bounds in three, two, one, and quasione dimensions. From the properties of the electron gas in the dilute regime, the tightest estimate to date is given for the numerical prefactor of the bound, which is crucial in practical applications. Numerical tests on various low-dimensional systems are in line with the bounds obtained and give evidence of an interesting dimensional crossover between two and one dimensions.

Density gradients for the exchange energy of electrons in two dimensions

We derive a generalized gradient approximation to the exchange energy to be used in density functional theory calculations of two-dimensional systems. This class of approximations has a long and successful history, but it has not yet been fully investigated for electrons in two dimensions. We follow the approach originally proposed by Becke for three-dimensional systems [Int. J. Quantum Chem. 23, 1915 (1983); J. Chem. Phys. 85, 7184 (1986)]. The resulting functional depends on two parameters that are adjusted to a test set of parabolically confined quantum dots. Our exchange functional is then tested on a variety of systems with promising results, reducing the error in the exchange energy by a factor of 4 with respect to the simple local density approximation.

Exchange-energy functionals for finite two-dimensional systems

Implicit and explicit density functionals for the exchange energy in finite two-dimensional systems are developed following the approach of Becke and Roussel [Phys. Rev. A 39, 3761 (1989)]. Excellent agreement for the exchange-hole potentials and exchange energies is found when compared with the exact-exchange reference data for the two-dimensional uniform electron gas and few-electron quantum dots, respectively. Thereby, this work significantly improves the availability of approximate density functionals for dealing with electrons in quasi-two-dimensional structures, which have various applications in semiconductor nanotechnology.

Orbital-free energy functional for electrons in two dimensions

We derive a nonempirical, orbital-free density functional for the total energy of interacting electrons in two dimensions. The functional consists of a local formula for the interaction energy, where we follow the lines introduced by Parr for three-dimensional systems [R. G. Parr, J. Phys. Chem. 92, 3060 (1988)], and the Thomas-Fermi approximation for the kinetic energy. The freedom from orbitals and from the Hartree integral makes the proposed approximation numerically highly efficient. The total energies obtained for confined two-dimensional systems are in a good agreement with the standard local-density approximation within density-functional theory and considerably more accurate than the Thomas-Fermi approximation.

Correlation energy of finite two-dimensional systems: Toward nonempirical and universal modeling

The capability of density-functional theory to deal with the ground-state of strongly correlated low-dimensional systems, such as semiconductor quantum dots, depends on the accuracy of functionals developed for the exchange and correlation energies. Here we extend a successful approximation for the correlation energy of the three dimensional inhomogeneous electron gas, originally introduced by Becke [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 88}, 1053 (1988)], to the two-dimensional case. The approach aims to non-empirical modeling of the correlation-hole functions satisfying a set of exact properties. Furthermore, the electron current and spin are explicitly taken into account. As a result, good performance is obtained in comparison with numerically exact data for quantum dots with varying external magnetic field, and for the homogeneous two-dimensional electron gas, respectively.

Gaussian approximations for the exchange-energy functional of current-carrying states: Applications to two-dimensional systems

Electronic structure calculations are routinely carried out within the framework of density-functional theory, often with great success. For electrons in reduced dimensions, however, there is still a need for better approximations to the exchange-correlation energy functional. Furthermore, the need for properly describing current-carrying states represents an additional challenge for the development of approximate functionals. In order to make progress along these directions, we show that simple and efficient expressions for the exchange energy can be obtained by considering the short-range behavior of the one-body spin-density matrix. Applications to several two-dimensional systems confirm the excellent performance of the derived approximations, and verify the gauge-invariance requirement to be of great importance for dealing with current-carrying states.

Transverse and longitudinal gradients of the spin magnetization in spin-density-functional theory

We derive the gradient expansion for the exchange energy of a spin-polarized electron gas by perturbing the uniformly spin polarized state and thus inducing a small non-collinearity that is slowly varying in space. We show that the exchange-energy contribution due to the induced longitudinal gradient of the spin polarization to the exchange energy differs from the contribution due to the transverse gradient. The difference is present at any non-vanishing spin polarization and becomes larger with increasing spin polarization. We argue that improved generalized gradient approximations of Spin-Density-Functional Theory must account for the difference between the longitudinal and transverse spin stiffness.

Local correlation functional for electrons in two dimensions

We derive a local approximation for the correlation energy in two-dimensional electronic systems. In the derivation we follow the scheme originally developed by Colle and Salvetti for three dimensions, and consider a Gaussian approximation for the pair density. Then, we introduce an ad-hoc modification which better accounts for both the long-range correlation, and the kinetic-energy contribution to the correlation energy. The resulting functional is local, and depends parametrically on the number of electrons in the system. We apply this functional to the homogeneous electron gas and to a set of two-dimensional quantum dots covering a wide range of electron densities and thus various amounts of correlation. In all test cases we find an excellent agreement between our results and the exact correlation energies. Our correlation functional has a form that is simple and straightforward to implement, but broadly outperforms the commonly used local-density approximation.

Construction of the B88 Exchange-Energy Functional in Two Dimensions

We construct a generalized-gradient approximation for the exchange-energy density of finite two-dimensional systems. Guided by nonempirical principles, we include the proper small-gradient limit and the proper tail for the exchange-hole potential. The observed performance is superior to that of the two-dimensional local-density approximation, which underlines the usefulness of the approach in practical applications.