Non-perturbative calculation of molecular magnetic properties within current-density functional theory

Magnetic-Field Density-Functional Theory (BDFT): Lessons from the Adiabatic Connection

We study the effects of magnetic fields in the context of magnetic field density-functional theory (BDFT), where the energy is a functional of the electron density ρ and the magnetic field B. We show that this approach is a worthwhile alternative to current-density functional theory (CDFT) and may provide a viable route to the study of many magnetic phenomena using density-functional theory (DFT). The relationship between BDFT and CDFT is developed and clarified within the framework of the four-way correspondence of saddle functions and their convex and concave parents in convex analysis. By decomposing the energy into its Kohn-Sham components, we demonstrate that the magnetizability is mainly determined by those energy components that are related to the density. For existing density functional approximations, this implies that, for the magnetizability, improvements of the density will be more beneficial than introducing a magnetic-field dependence in the correlation functional. However, once a good charge density is achieved, we show that high accuracy is likely only obtainable by including magnetic-field dependence. We demonstrate that adiabatic-connection (AC) curves at different field strengths resemble one another closely provided each curve is calculated at the equilibrium geometry of that field strength. In contrast, if all AC curves are calculated at the equilibrium geometry of the field-free system, then the curves change strongly with increasing field strength due to the increasing importance of static correlation. This holds also for density functional approximations, for which we demonstrate that the main error encountered in the presence of a field is already present at zero field strength, indicating that density-functional approximations may be applied to systems in strong fields, without the need to treat additional static correlation.

On the calculation of second-order magnetic properties using subsystem approaches in a relativistic framework

The implementation of second-order magnetic properties in a frozen density embedding scheme in a four component relativistic framework is outlined and applied to model H₂X–H₂O systems (X = Se, Te, Po).

Gauge-invariant expectation values of the energy of a molecule in an electromagnetic field

In this paper, we show that the full Hamiltonian for a molecule in an electromagnetic field can be separated into a molecular Hamiltonian and a field Hamiltonian, both with gauge-invariant expectation values. The expectation value of the molecular Hamiltonian gives physically meaningful results for the energy of a molecule in a time-dependent applied field. In contrast, the usual partitioning of the full Hamiltonian into molecular and field terms introduces an arbitrary gauge-dependent potential into the molecular Hamiltonian and leaves a gauge-dependent form of the Hamiltonian for the field. With the usual partitioning of the Hamiltonian, this same problem of gauge dependence arises even in the absence of an applied field, as we show explicitly by considering a gauge transformation from zero applied field and zero external potentials to zero applied field, but non-zero external vector and scalar potentials. We resolve this problem and also remove the gauge dependence from the Hamiltonian for a molecule in a non-zero applied field and from the field Hamiltonian, by repartitioning the full Hamiltonian. It is possible to remove the gauge dependence because the interaction of the molecular charges with the gauge potential cancels identically with a gauge-dependent term in the usual form of the field Hamiltonian. We treat the electromagnetic field classically and treat the molecule quantum mechanically, but nonrelativistically. Our derivation starts from the Lagrangian for a set of charged particles and an electromagnetic field, with the particle coordinates, the vector potential, the scalar potential, and their time derivatives treated as the variables in the Lagrangian. We construct the full Hamiltonian using a Lagrange multiplier method originally suggested by Dirac, partition this Hamiltonian into a molecular term Hm and a field term Hf, and show that both Hm and Hf have gauge-independent expectation values. Any gauge may be chosen for the calculations; but following our partitioning, the expectation values of the molecular Hamiltonian are identical to those obtained directly in the Coulomb gauge. As a corollary of this result, the power absorbed by a molecule from a time-dependent, applied electromagnetic field is equal to the time derivative of the non-adiabatic term in the molecular energy, in any gauge.

Gauge-invariant calculation of static and dynamical magnetic properties from the current density

In this work we solve two problems related to the calculation of static and dynamical magnetic properties with ab initio theories. First, we show that the dependence of the dynamical magnetic dipole moment on the reference point of the multipole expansion and on the gauge origin of the vector potential have a clear physical significance. They are due to a dynamical electric dipole moment and an electric field, respectively. Both are fully determined by the experimental setup and do not pose any fundamental problem, contrary to what is commonly assumed. Second, in the static case, any dependence on the gauge origin is an artifact of the computational method. We show that the artificial dependence on the gauge origin can be removed in an elegant way by the introduction of a sum rule that puts the diamagnetic and paramagnetic contributions on equal footing. Our approach can be applied to calculate any magnetic observable that can be derived from the current density, and can be used in combination with any ab initio theory from which it can be obtained. To illustrate our method we apply it here to time-dependent current-density-functional theory for the calculation of static and dynamical magnetizabilities of molecules.

The importance of current contributions to shielding constants in density-functional theory

The sources of error in the calculation of nuclear-magnetic-resonance shielding constants determined by density-functional theory are examined.