Dissociation limits in Density Functional Theory

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Main Authors: Bouchitté, Guy, Buttazzo, Giuseppe, Champion, Thierry, De Pascale, Luigi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Bouchitté, Guy
Buttazzo, Giuseppe
Champion, Thierry
De Pascale, Luigi
author_facet Bouchitté, Guy
Buttazzo, Giuseppe
Champion, Thierry
De Pascale, Luigi
contents In this paper we consider the {\it Density Functional Theory} (DFT) framework, where a functional of the form $$F_\eps(ρ)=\eps T(ρ)+bC(ρ)-U(ρ)$$ has to be minimized in the class of non-negative measures $ρ$ which have a prescribed total mass $m$ (the total electronic charge). The parameter $\eps$ is small and the terms $T$, $C$, $U$ respectively represent the kinetic energy, the electronic repulsive correlation, the potential interaction term between electrons and nuclei. Several expressions for the above terms have been considered in the literature and our framework is general enough to include most of them. It is known that in general, when the positive charge of the nuclei is small, the so-called {\it ionization phenomenon} may occur, consisting in the fact that the minimizers of $F_\eps$ can have a total mass lower than $m$; this physically means that some of the electrons may escape to infinity when the attraction of the nuclei is not strong enough. Our main goal, continuing the research we started in \cite{bbcd18}, is to study the asymptotic behavior of the minimizers of $F_\eps$ as $\eps\to0$. We show that the $Γ$-limit functional is defined on sums of Dirac masses and has an explicit expression that depends on the terms $T$, $C$, $U$ that the model takes into account. Some explicit examples illustrate how the electrons are distributed around the nuclei according to the model used.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_00063
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dissociation limits in Density Functional Theory
Bouchitté, Guy
Buttazzo, Giuseppe
Champion, Thierry
De Pascale, Luigi
Mathematical Physics
Analysis of PDEs
Optimization and Control
49J45, 49N15, 82M30, 35Q40
In this paper we consider the {\it Density Functional Theory} (DFT) framework, where a functional of the form $$F_\eps(ρ)=\eps T(ρ)+bC(ρ)-U(ρ)$$ has to be minimized in the class of non-negative measures $ρ$ which have a prescribed total mass $m$ (the total electronic charge). The parameter $\eps$ is small and the terms $T$, $C$, $U$ respectively represent the kinetic energy, the electronic repulsive correlation, the potential interaction term between electrons and nuclei. Several expressions for the above terms have been considered in the literature and our framework is general enough to include most of them. It is known that in general, when the positive charge of the nuclei is small, the so-called {\it ionization phenomenon} may occur, consisting in the fact that the minimizers of $F_\eps$ can have a total mass lower than $m$; this physically means that some of the electrons may escape to infinity when the attraction of the nuclei is not strong enough. Our main goal, continuing the research we started in \cite{bbcd18}, is to study the asymptotic behavior of the minimizers of $F_\eps$ as $\eps\to0$. We show that the $Γ$-limit functional is defined on sums of Dirac masses and has an explicit expression that depends on the terms $T$, $C$, $U$ that the model takes into account. Some explicit examples illustrate how the electrons are distributed around the nuclei according to the model used.
title Dissociation limits in Density Functional Theory
topic Mathematical Physics
Analysis of PDEs
Optimization and Control
49J45, 49N15, 82M30, 35Q40
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00063