Density-potential functional theory from atoms to quantum gases

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Martin

Trappe

February 21, 2020 1:30 PM

We apply a versatile variant of orbital-free density functional theory, density- potential functional theory (DPFT), to atoms, molecules, solids, and quantum gases. Interacting many-body systems with large particle numbers like quan tum gases or solid states with long-range interactions in various dimensions pose formidable challenges even to state-of-the-art theoretical methods. We use recently developed systematic semiclassical approximations of energies and par ticle densities to describe concrete interacting fermion systems. By design the single-particle densities employed here can be improved systematically beyond the Thomas-Fermi approximation and can be used for efficiently addressing inhomogeneous interacting systems due to the favorable quasi-linear (even sub linear for some systems) scaling of DPFT with particle number. DPFT yields self-consistent interacting particle densities in a spirit similar to the Kohn-Sham scheme, but circumvents the need for orbitals and does not require an explicit density functional for the kinetic energy. These features put DPFT in the po sition to become a real alternative to established many-body techniques, and here we showcase a number of its real-world applications.