Extending Nonlocal Kinetic Energy Density Functionals to Isolated Systems via a Density-Functional-Dependent Kernel

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sun, Liang, Chen, Mohan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Sun, Liang
Chen, Mohan
author_facet Sun, Liang
Chen, Mohan
contents The Wang-Teter-like nonlocal kinetic energy density functional (KEDF) in the framework of orbital-free density functional theory, while successful in some bulk systems, exhibits a critical Blanc-Cances instability [J. Chem. Phys. 122, 214106 (2005)] when applied to isolated systems, where the total energy becomes unbounded from below. We trace this instability to the use of an ill-defined average charge density, which causes the functional to simultaneously violate the scaling law and the positivity of the Pauli energy. By rigorously constructing a density-functional-dependent kernel, we resolve these pathologies while preserving the formal exactness of the original framework. By systematically benchmarking single-atom systems of 56 elements, we find the resulting KEDF retains computational efficiency while achieving an order-of-magnitude accuracy enhancement over the WT KEDF. In addition, the new KEDF preserves WT's superior accuracy in bulk metals, outperforming the semilocal functionals in both regimes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_08442
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Extending Nonlocal Kinetic Energy Density Functionals to Isolated Systems via a Density-Functional-Dependent Kernel
Sun, Liang
Chen, Mohan
Materials Science
Chemical Physics
Computational Physics
The Wang-Teter-like nonlocal kinetic energy density functional (KEDF) in the framework of orbital-free density functional theory, while successful in some bulk systems, exhibits a critical Blanc-Cances instability [J. Chem. Phys. 122, 214106 (2005)] when applied to isolated systems, where the total energy becomes unbounded from below. We trace this instability to the use of an ill-defined average charge density, which causes the functional to simultaneously violate the scaling law and the positivity of the Pauli energy. By rigorously constructing a density-functional-dependent kernel, we resolve these pathologies while preserving the formal exactness of the original framework. By systematically benchmarking single-atom systems of 56 elements, we find the resulting KEDF retains computational efficiency while achieving an order-of-magnitude accuracy enhancement over the WT KEDF. In addition, the new KEDF preserves WT's superior accuracy in bulk metals, outperforming the semilocal functionals in both regimes.
title Extending Nonlocal Kinetic Energy Density Functionals to Isolated Systems via a Density-Functional-Dependent Kernel
topic Materials Science
Chemical Physics
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08442