Quantal Density Functional Theory

Density functional theory is an important and widely used tool in many-body physics that has found applications in atomic, molecular, solid-state and nuclear physics. It is used principally to determine the electronic structure of these complex systems. Sahni has developed a new approach, termed quantal density functional theory, which simplifies the process of solving the computational problem and at the same time, gives insight into the underlying quantum mechanics. Further, the book describes Schrödinger theory from the new perspective of fields and quantal sources. It also explains the physics underlying the functionals and functional derivatives of traditional DFTQuantal density functional theory (Q-DFT) is a new local effective potential energy theory of the electronic structure of matter. It is a description in terms of classical fields that pervade all space, and their quantal sources. The fields, which are explicitly defined, are separately representative of the many-body electron correlations present in such a description, namely, those due to the Pauli exclusion principle, Coulomb repulsion, correlation-kinetic, and correlation-current-density effects. The book further describes Schrödinger theory from the new perspective of fields and quantal sources. It also explains the physics underlying the functionals and functional derivatives of traditional DFT.