Density functionals not based on the electron gas: local-density approximation for a Luttinger liquid

Variational minimization scheme for the one-particle reduced density matrix functional theory in the ensemble N-representability domain

The one-particle reduced density-matrix (1-RDM) functional theory is a promising alternative to density-functional theory (DFT) that uses the 1-RDM rather than the electronic density as a basic variable. However, long-standing challenges such as the lack of the Kohn-Sham scheme and the complexity of the pure N-representability conditions are still impeding its wild utilization. Fortunately, ensemble N-representability conditions derived in the natural orbital basis are known and trivial such that almost every functional of the 1-RDM is actually natural orbital functional, which does not perform well for all the correlation regimes. In this work, we propose a variational minimization scheme in the ensemble N-representable domain that is not restricted to the natural orbital representation of the 1-RDM. We show that splitting the minimization into the diagonal and off-diagonal parts of the 1-RDM can open the way toward the development of functionals of the orbital occupations, which remains a challenge for the generalization of site-occupation functional theory in chemistry. Our approach is tested on the uniform Hubbard model using the Müller and the Töws-Pastor functionals, as well as on the dihydrogen molecule using the Müller functional.

What can lattice DFT teach us about real-space DFT?

In this paper we establish a connection between density functional theory (DFT) for lattice models and common real-space DFT. We consider the lattice DFT description of a two-level model subject to generic interactions in Mermin's DFT formulation in the grand canonical ensemble at finite temperature. The case of only density-density and Hund's rule interaction studied in earlier work is shown to be equivalent to an exact-exchange description of DFT in the real-space picture. In addition, we also include the so-called pair-hopping interaction which can be treated analytically and, crucially, leads to non-integer occupations of the Kohn-Sham (KS) levels even in the limit of zero temperature. Treating the hydrogen molecule in a minimal basis is shown to be equivalent to our two-level lattice DFT model. By means of the fractional occupations of the KS orbitals (which, in this case, are identical to the many-body ones) we reproduce the results of full configuration interaction, even in the dissociation limit and without breaking the spin symmetry. Beyond the minimal basis, we embed our HOMO-LUMO model into a standard DFT calculation and, again, obtain results in overall good agreement with exact ones without the need of breaking the spin symmetry.

Nonadiabatic Exchange-Correlation Potential for Strongly Correlated Materials in the Weak and Strong Interaction Limits

In this work, nonadiabatic exchange-correlation (XC) potentials for time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) for strongly correlated materials are derived in the limits of strong and weak correlations. After summarizing some essentials of the available dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) XC potentials valid for these systems, we present details of the Sham–Schluter equation approach that we use to obtain, in principle, an exact XC potential from a many-body theory solution for the nonequilibrium electron self-energy. We derive the XC potentials for the one-band Hubbard model in the limits of weak and strong on-site Coulomb repulsion. To test the accuracy of the obtained potentials, we compare the TDDFT results obtained with these potentials with the corresponding nonequilibrium DMFT solution for the one-band Hubbard model and find that the agreement between the solutions is rather good. We also discuss possible directions to obtain a universal XC potential that would be appropriate for the case of intermediate interaction strengths, i.e., a nonadiabatic potential that can be used to perform TDDFT analysis of nonequilibrium phenomena, such as transport and other ultrafast properties of materials with any strength of electron correlation at any value in the applied perturbing field.

Approximating quantum thermodynamic properties using DFT

The fabrication, utilisation, and efficiency of quantum technology devices rely on a good understanding of quantum thermodynamic properties. Many-body systems are often used as hardware for these quantum devices, but interactions between particles make the complexity of related calculations grow exponentially with the system size. Here we explore and systematically compare 'simple' and 'hybrid' approximations to the average work and entropy variation built on static density functional theory concepts. These approximations are computationally cheap and could be applied to large systems. We exemplify them considering driven one-dimensional Hubbard chains and show that, for 'simple' approximations and low to medium temperatures, it pays to consider a good estimate of the Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian to approximate the driving Hamiltonian. Our results confirm that a 'hybrid' approach, requiring a very good approximation of the initial and, for the entropy, final states of the system, provides great improvements. This approach should be particularly efficient when many-body effects are not increased by the driving Hamiltonian.

Local Potential Functional Embedding Theory: A Self-Consistent Flavor of Density Functional Theory for Lattices without Density Functionals

Quantum embedding is a divide and conquer strategy that aims at solving the electronic Schrödinger equation of sizeable molecules or extended systems. We establish in the present work a clearer and in-principle-exact connection between density matrix embedding theory (DMET) and density-functional theory (DFT) within the simple but nontrivial one-dimensional Hubbard model. For that purpose, we use our recent reformulation of single-impurity DMET as a Householder transformed density-matrix functional embedding theory (Ht-DMFET). On the basis of well-identified density-functional approximations, a self-consistent local potential functional embedding theory (LPFET) is formulated and implemented. Combining both LPFET and DMET numerical results with our formally exact density-functional embedding theory reveals that a single statically embedded impurity can in principle describe the density-driven Mott–Hubbard transition, provided that a complementary density-functional correlation potential (which is neglected in both DMET and LPFET) exhibits a derivative discontinuity (DD) at half filling. The extension of LPFET to multiple impurities (which would enable to circumvent the modeling of DDs) and its generalization to quantum chemical Hamiltonians are left for future work.

Density-functional theory on graphs

The principles of density-functional theory are studied for finite lattice systems represented by graphs. Surprisingly, the fundamental Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is found void, in general, while many insights into the topological structure of the density-potential mapping can be won. We give precise conditions for a ground state to be uniquely v-representable and are able to prove that this property holds for almost all densities. A set of examples illustrates the theory and demonstrates the non-convexity of the pure-state constrained-search functional.

Mott Metal-Insulator Transition from Steady-State Density Functional Theory

We present a computationally efficient method to obtain the spectral function of bulk systems in the framework of steady-state density functional theory (i-DFT) using an idealized scanning tunneling microscope (STM) setup. We calculate the current through the STM tip and then extract the spectral function from the finite-bias differential conductance. The fictitious noninteracting system of i-DFT features an exchange-correlation (XC) contribution to the bias which guarantees the same current as in the true interacting system. Exact properties of the XC bias are established using Fermi-liquid theory and subsequently implemented to construct approximations for the Hubbard model. We show for two different lattice structures that the Mott metal-insulator transition is captured by i-DFT.

One-dimensional Lieb-Oxford bounds

We investigate and prove Lieb-Oxford bounds in one dimension by studying convex potentials that approximate the ill-defined Coulomb potential. A Lieb-Oxford inequality establishes a bound of the indirect interaction energy for electrons in terms of the one-body particle density ρ_ψ of a wave function ψ. Our results include modified soft Coulomb potential and regularized Coulomb potential. For these potentials, we establish Lieb-Oxford-type bounds utilizing logarithmic expressions of the particle density. Furthermore, a previous conjectured form I_xc(ψ)≥-C₁∫_Rρ_ψ(x)²dx is discussed for different convex potentials.

Nonadiabatic Electron Dynamics in Tunneling Junctions: Lattice Exchange-Correlation Potential

The search for exchange-correlation functionals going beyond the adiabatic approximation has always been a challenging task for time-dependent density-functional theory. Starting from known results and using symmetry properties, we put forward a nonadiabatic exchange-correlation functional for lattice models describing a generic transport setup. We show that this functional reduces to known results for a single quantum dot connected to one or two reservoirs and furthermore yields the adiabatic local-density approximation in the static limit. Finally, we analyze the features of the exchange-correlation potential and the physics it describes in a linear chain connected to two reservoirs where the transport is induced by a bias voltage applied to the reservoirs. We find that the Coulomb blockade is correctly described for a half-filled chain, while additional effects arise as the doping of the chain changes.

Recent Progress in Lattice Density Functional Theory

Recent developments in the density-functional theory of electron correlations in many-body lattice models are reviewed. The theoretical framework of lattice density-functional theory (LDFT) is briefly recalled, giving emphasis to its universality and to the central role played by the single-particle density-matrix γ . The Hubbard model and the Anderson single-impurity model are considered as relevant explicit problems for the applications. Real-space and reciprocal-space approximations to the fundamental interaction-energy functional W [ γ ] are introduced, in the framework of which the most important ground-state properties are derived. The predictions of LDFT are contrasted with available exact analytical results and state-of-the-art numerical calculations. Thus, the goals and limitations of the method are discussed.

Artificial neural networks for density-functional optimizations in fermionic systems

In this work we propose an artificial neural network functional to the ground-state energy of fermionic interacting particles in homogeneous chains described by the Hubbard model. Our neural network functional was proven to have an excellent performance: it deviates from numerically exact calculations by less than 0.15% for a vast regime of interactions and for all the regimes of filling factors and magnetizations. When compared to analytical functionals, the neural functional was found to be more precise for all the regimes of parameters, being particularly superior at the weakly interacting regime: where the analytical parametrization fails the most, ~7%, against only ~0.1% for the neural network. We have also applied our homogeneous functional to finite, localized impurities and harmonically confined systems within density-functional theory (DFT) methods. The results show that while our artificial neural network approach is substantially more accurate than other equivalently simple and fast DFT treatments, it has similar performance than more costly DFT calculations and other independent many-body calculations, at a fraction of the computational cost.

Testing density-functional approximations on a lattice and the applicability of the related Hohenberg-Kohn-like theorem

We present a metric-space approach to quantify the performance of approximations in lattice density-functional theory for interacting many-body systems and to explore the regimes where the Hohenberg-Kohn-type theorem on fermionic lattices is applicable. This theorem demonstrates the existence of one-to-one mappings between particle densities, wave functions and external potentials. We then focus on these quantities, and quantify how far apart in metric space the approximated and exact ones are. We apply our method to the one-dimensional Hubbard model for different types of external potentials, and assess the regimes where it is applicable to one of the most used approximations in density-functional theory, the local density approximation (LDA). We find that the potential distance may have a very different behaviour from the density and wave function distances, in some cases even providing the wrong assessments of the LDA performance trends. We attribute this to the systems reaching behaviours which are borderline for the applicability of the one-to-one correspondence between density and external potential. On the contrary the wave function and density distances behave similarly and are always sensitive to system variations. Our metric-based method correctly predicts the regimes where the LDA performs fairly well and the regimes where it fails. This suggests that our method could be a practical tool for testing the efficiency of density-functional approximations.

Nonadiabatic exchange-correlation kernel for strongly correlated materials

We formulate a rigorous method for calculating a nonadiabatic (frequency-dependent) exchange-correlation (XC) kernel appropriate for accurate description of both equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of strongly correlated systems within the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) via the charge susceptibility, which is in turn obtained from dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) based on the effective multi-orbital Hubbard model. Application to the simple case of the one-orbital Hubbard model already shows the importance of the nonadiabatic kernel as it leads to significant modification of the excitation spectrum-shifting the (adiabatic) peak and disclosing another that is reminiscent of the solution from DMFT. The impact of dynamical effects, naturally included through the nonadiabaticity of the XC kernel, becomes even more transparent in our consideration of the nonequilibrium charge-density response of a multi-orbital perovskite, YTiO₃, to a perturbation by a femtosecond (fs) laser pulse. These initial results indicate that electron-electron correlations and nonadiabatic features may significantly affect the spectrum and nonequilibrium properties of strongly correlated systems. We also propose an algorithm for extension of the approach to non-linear response. The transparency and computational efficiency of this non-adiabatic TDDFT+DMFT approach opens the door to examination of the spectra and response of multi-orbital systems with many nonequivalent atoms-bulk material, films and nanostructures.

Spin-Charge Separation in Finite Length Metallic Carbon Nanotubes

Using time-dependent density functional theory, we study the optical excitations in finite length carbon nanotubes. Evidence of spin-charge separation is given in the spacetime domain. We demonstrate that the charge density wave is due to collective excitations of electron singlets, while the accompanying spin density wave is due to those of electron triplets. The Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid parameter and density-density interaction are extrapolated from the first-principles excitation energies. We show that the density-density interaction increases with the length of the nanotube. The singlet and triplet excitation energies, on the other hand, decrease for increasing length of the nanotube. Their ratio is used to establish a first-principles approach for deriving the Tomonaga-Luttinger parameter (in excellent agreement with experimental data). Time evolution analysis of the charge and spin line densities evidences that the charge and spin density waves are elementary excitations of metallic carbon nanotubes. Their dynamics show no dependence on each other.

On the performance of natural orbital functional approximations in the Hubbard model

Strongly correlated materials are now under intense development, and natural orbital functional (NOF) methods seem to be able to capture the physics of these systems. We present a benchmark based on the Hubbard model for a class of commonly used NOF approximations (also known as reduced density matrix functional approximations). Our findings highlight the importance of imposing ensemble N-representability conditions in order to obtain consistent results in systems with either weak or strong electronic correlation, such as the Hubbard system with a varying two-particle interaction parameter. Based on the accuracy of the results obtained using PNOF7, which retrieves a large amount of the total strong nondynamic correlation, the Hubbard model points out that N-representability gives solid foundations for NOF development.

Transport through correlated systems with density functional theory

We present recent advances in density functional theory (DFT) for applications in the field of quantum transport, with particular emphasis on transport through strongly correlated systems. We review the foundations of the popular Landauer-Büttiker(LB)  +  DFT approach. This formalism, when using approximations to the exchange-correlation (xc) potential with steps at integer occupation, correctly captures the Kondo plateau in the zero bias conductance at zero temperature but completely fails to capture the transition to the Coulomb blockade (CB) regime as the temperature increases. To overcome the limitations of LB  +  DFT, the quantum transport problem is treated from a time-dependent (TD) perspective using TDDFT, an exact framework to deal with nonequilibrium situations. The steady-state limit of TDDFT shows that in addition to an xc potential in the junction, there also exists an xc correction to the applied bias. Open shell molecules in the CB regime provide the most striking examples of the importance of the xc bias correction. Using the Anderson model as guidance we estimate these corrections in the limit of zero bias. For the general case we put forward a steady-state DFT which is based on one-to-one correspondence between the pair of basic variables, steady density on and steady current across the junction and the pair local potential on and bias across the junction. Like TDDFT, this framework also leads to both an xc potential in the junction and an xc correction to the bias. Unlike TDDFT, these potentials are independent of history. We highlight the universal features of both xc potential and xc bias corrections for junctions in the CB regime and provide an accurate parametrization for the Anderson model at arbitrary temperatures and interaction strengths, thus providing a unified DFT description for both Kondo and CB regimes and the transition between them.

DFT-inspired methods for quantum thermodynamics

In the framework of quantum thermodynamics, we propose a method to quantitatively describe thermodynamic quantities for out-of-equilibrium interacting many-body systems. The method is articulated in various approximation protocols which allow to achieve increasing levels of accuracy, it is relatively simple to implement even for medium and large number of interactive particles, and uses tools and concepts from density functional theory. We test the method on the driven Hubbard dimer at half filling, and compare exact and approximate results. We show that the proposed method reproduces the average quantum work to high accuracy: for a very large region of parameter space (which cuts across all dynamical regimes) estimates are within 10% of the exact results.

Persistent current and Drude weight of one-dimensional interacting fermions on imperfect ring from current lattice density functional theory

We perform a numerical study of interacting one-dimensional Hubbard rings with a single impurity potential and pierced by a magnetic flux. Our calculations are carried out at the level of current lattice density functional theory (CLDFT) for the Hubbard model and compared to known results obtained in the thermodynamical limit from the Bethe ansatz. In particular, we investigate the effects of disorder and Coulomb interaction on the persistent current (PC) and the Drude weight. It is found that CLDFT is able to accurately describe qualitative and quantitative features of these ground state properties in the presence of disorder and electronic interaction. When the impurity potential is switched off, the CLDFT approach describes well the velocity of the Luttinger liquid excitations as a function of both interaction strength and electron filling. Then, when the impurity scattering potential is finite, we find the PC to vanish as [Formula: see text] for large L and independent on the strength of the scattering potential, in good agreement with Luttinger liquid theory.

Merging Features from Green's Functions and Time Dependent Density Functional Theory: A Route to the Description of Correlated Materials out of Equilibrium?

We propose a description of nonequilibrium systems via a simple protocol that combines exchange-correlation potentials from density functional theory with self-energies of many-body perturbation theory. The approach, aimed to avoid double counting of interactions, is tested against exact results in Hubbard-type systems, with respect to interaction strength, perturbation speed and inhomogeneity, and system dimensionality and size. In many regimes, we find significant improvement over adiabatic time dependent density functional theory or second Born nonequilibrium Green's function approximations. We briefly discuss the reasons for the residual discrepancies, and directions for future work.

The Hubbard dimer: a density functional case study of a many-body problem

This review explains the relationship between density functional theory and strongly correlated models using the simplest possible example, the two-site Hubbard model. The relationship to traditional quantum chemistry is included. Even in this elementary example, where the exact ground-state energy and site occupations can be found analytically, there is much to be explained in terms of the underlying logic and aims of density functional theory. Although the usual solution is analytic, the density functional is given only implicitly. We overcome this difficulty using the Levy-Lieb construction to create a parametrization of the exact function with negligible errors. The symmetric case is most commonly studied, but we find a rich variation in behavior by including asymmetry, as strong correlation physics vies with charge-transfer effects. We explore the behavior of the gap and the many-body Green's function, demonstrating the 'failure' of the Kohn-Sham (KS) method to reproduce the fundamental gap. We perform benchmark calculations of the occupation and components of the KS potentials, the correlation kinetic energies, and the adiabatic connection. We test several approximate functionals (restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock and Bethe ansatz local density approximation) to show their successes and limitations. We also discuss and illustrate the concept of the derivative discontinuity. Useful appendices include analytic expressions for density functional energy components, several limits of the exact functional (weak- and strong-coupling, symmetric and asymmetric), various adiabatic connection results, proofs of exact conditions for this model, and the origin of the Hubbard model from a minimal basis model for stretched H2.

Density-Functional Theory for Strongly Correlated Bosonic and Fermionic Ultracold Dipolar and Ionic Gases

We introduce a density functional formalism to study the ground-state properties of strongly correlated dipolar and ionic ultracold bosonic and fermionic gases, based on the self-consistent combination of the weak and the strong coupling limits. Contrary to conventional density functional approaches, our formalism does not require a previous calculation of the interacting homogeneous gas, and it is thus very suitable to treat systems with tunable long-range interactions. Because of its asymptotic exactness in the regime of strong correlation, the formalism works for systems in which standard mean-field theories fail.

Strong Correlations in Density-Functional Theory: A Model of Spin-Charge and Spin-Orbital Separations

It is known that the separation of electrons into spinons and chargons, the spin-charge separation, plays a decisive role when describing one-dimensional (1D) strongly correlated systems [ Phys. Rev. B 2012 , 86 , 075132 ]. In this paper, within the density-functional theory (DFT) formalism, we extend the investigation by considering a model for the third electron fractionalization: the separation into spinons, chargons and orbitons, the last associated with the electronic orbital degree of freedom. Specifically, we deal with two exact constraints of exchange-correlation (XC) density-functionals: (i) the constancy of the highest occupied (HO) Kohn-Sham (KS) eigenvalues upon fractional electron numbers and (ii) their discontinuities at integers. By means of 1D discrete Hubbard chains and 1D H2 molecules in the continuum, we find that spin-charge separation yields almost constant HO KS eigenvalues, whereas the spin-orbital counterpart can be decisive when describing derivative discontinuities of XC potentials at strong correlations.

Nonadiabatic time-dependent spin-density functional theory for strongly correlated systems

We propose a nonadiabatic time-dependent spin-density functional theory (TDSDFT) approach for studying single-electron excited states and the ultrafast response of systems with strong electron correlations. The correlation part of the nonadiabatic exchange-correlation (XC) kernel is constructed by using exact results for the Hubbard model of strongly correlated electrons. We demonstrate that the corresponding nonadiabatic XC kernel reproduces the main features of the spectrum of the Hubbard dimer and the 2D, 3D and infinite-dimensional Hubbard models, some of which are impossible to obtain within the adiabatic approach. The formalism may be applied for ab initio examination of strongly correlated electron systems in- and out-of-equilibrium within the TDSDFT, extending it beyond the metallic and semiconductor structures with plasmons, excitons and other excitations.

The derivative discontinuity of the exchange–correlation functional

Manifestations of the derivative discontinuity of the energy in density functional theory are demonstrated in simple systems in chemistry and physics.

Derivative discontinuity in the strong-interaction limit of density-functional theory

We generalize the exact strong-interaction limit of the exchange-correlation energy of Kohn-Sham density functional theory to open systems with fluctuating particle numbers. When used in the self-consistent Kohn-Sham procedure on strongly interacting systems, this functional yields exact features crucial for important applications such as quantum transport. In particular, the steplike structure of the highest-occupied Kohn-Sham eigenvalue is very well captured, with accurate quantitative agreement with exact many-body chemical potentials. While it can be shown that a sharp derivative discontinuity is present only in the infinitely strongly correlated limit, at finite correlation regimes we observe a slightly smoothened discontinuity, with qualitative and quantitative features that improve with increasing correlation. From the fundamental point of view, our results obtain the derivative discontinuity without making the assumptions used in its standard derivation, offering independent support for its existence.

Three-dimensional dynamics of a fermionic Mott wedding-cake in clean and disordered optical lattices

Non-equilibrium quantum phenomena are ubiquitous in nature. Yet, theoretical predictions on the real-time dynamics of many-body quantum systems remain formidably challenging, especially for high dimensions, strong interactions or disordered samples. Here we consider a notable paradigm of strongly correlated Fermi systems, the Mott phase of the Hubbard model, in a setup resembling ultracold-gases experiments. We study the three-dimensional expansion of a cloud into an optical lattice after removing the confining potential. We use time-dependent density-functional theory combined with dynamical mean-field theory, considering interactions below and above the Mott threshold, as well as disorder effects. At strong coupling, we observe multiple timescales in the melting of the Mott wedding-cake structure, as the Mott plateau persist orders of magnitude longer than the band insulating core. We also show that disorder destabilises the Mott plateau and that, compared to a clean setup, localisation can decrease, creating an interesting dynamic crossover during the expansion.

Probing Wigner correlations in a suspended carbon nanotube

The influence of electron–vibron coupling on the transport properties of a strongly interacting quantum dot built in a suspended carbon nanotube (CNT) is analyzed. The latter is probed by a charged atomic force microscope tip scanned along the axis of the CNT which induces oscillations of the chemical potential and of the linear conductance. These oscillations are due to the competition between finite-size effects and the formation of a Wigner molecule for strong interactions. Such oscillations are shown to be suppressed by the electron–vibron coupling. The suppression is more pronounced in the regime of weak Coulomb interactions, which ensures that probing Wigner correlations in such a system is in principle possible.

Dynamical correction to linear Kohn-Sham conductances from static density functional theory

For molecules weakly coupled to leads the exact linear Kohn-Sham (KS) conductance can be orders of magnitude larger than the true linear conductance due to the lack of dynamical exchange-correlation (xc) corrections. In this work we show how to incorporate dynamical effects in KS transport calculations. The only quantity needed is the static xc potential in the molecular junction. Our scheme provides a comprehensive description of Coulomb blockade without breaking the spin symmetry. This is explicitly demonstrated in single-wall nanotubes where the corrected conductance is in good agreement with experimental data whereas the KS conductance fails dramatically.

Exact exchange-correlation potential of an ionic Hubbard model with a free surface

In Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) the interacting electron problem is mapped into a noninteracting problem in an effective potential v_KS. It is known that the charge gap of the interacting system is different from the gap of the effective problem due to a jump Δ_xc in v_KS when an electron is added but its magnitude and its role in the ubiquitous discrepancy between the experimental gaps and approximate DFT computations is poorly understood. Here we compute the exact v_KS of a strongly interacting one-dimensional lattice model which can be driven from an ionic to a Mott insulating state. Presence of a “vacuum” region allows to determine the absolute value of v_KS. We show that in the ionic regime Δ_xc is determined by nearest-neighbor interaction, while in the Mott regime Δ_xc is determined by on-site Hubbard interaction.

Time-dependent electron transport through a strongly correlated quantum dot: multiple-probe open-boundary conditions approach

We present a time-dependent study of electron transport through a strongly correlated quantum dot, which combines adiabatic lattice density functional theory in the Bethe ansatz local-density approximation (BALDA) to the Hubbard model, with the multiple-probe battery method for open-boundary simulations in the time domain. In agreement with the recently proposed dynamical picture of Coulomb blockade, a characteristic driven regime, defined by regular current oscillations, is demonstrated for a certain range of bias voltages. We further investigate the effects of systematically improving the approximation for the electron-electron interaction at the dot site (going from non-interacting, through Hartree-only to adiabatic BALDA) on the transmission spectrum and the I-V characteristics. In particular, a negative differential conductance is obtained at large bias voltages and large Coulomb interaction strengths. This is attributed to the combined effect of the electron-electron interaction at the dot and the finite bandwidth of the electrodes.

Persistent current and Drude weight for the one-dimensional Hubbard model from current lattice density functional theory

The Bethe ansatz local density approximation (LDA) to lattice density functional theory (LDFT) for the one-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model is extended to current-LDFT (CLDFT). The transport properties of mesoscopic Hubbard rings threaded by a magnetic flux are then systematically investigated by this scheme. In particular we present calculations of ground state energies, persistent currents and Drude weights for both a repulsive homogeneous and a single impurity Hubbard model. Our results for the ground state energies in the metallic phase compare favorably well with those obtained with numerically accurate many-body techniques. Also the dependence of the persistent currents on the Coulomb and the impurity interaction strength, and on the ring size are all well captured by LDA-CLDFT. Our study demonstrates the value of CLDFT in describing the transport properties of one-dimensional correlated electron systems. As its computational overheads are rather modest, we propose this method as a tool for studying problems where both disorder and interaction are present.

Towards a description of the Kondo effect using time-dependent density-functional theory

We demonstrate that the zero-temperature conductance of the Anderson model can be calculated within the Landauer formalism combined with static density-functional theory. The proposed approximate functional is based on finite-temperature density-functional theory and yields the exact Kohn-Sham potential at the particle-hole symmetric point. Furthermore, in the limit of zero temperature it correctly exhibits a derivative discontinuity which is shown to be essential to reproduce the conductance plateau. On the other hand, at the Kondo temperature the exact Kohn-Sham conductance overestimates the real one by an order of magnitude. To understand the failure of density-functional theory, we resort to its time-dependent version and conclude that the suppression of the Kondo resonance must be attributed to dynamical exchange-correlation corrections.

Exact-exchange spin-density functional theory of Wigner localization and phase transitions in quantum rings

We apply exact-exchange spin-density functional theory in the Krieger-Li-Iafrate approximation to interacting electrons in quantum rings of different widths. The rings are threaded by a magnetic flux that induces a persistent current. A weak space and spin symmetry breaking potential is introduced to allow for localized solutions. As the electron-electron interaction strength described by the dimensionless parameter r(S) is increased, we observe-at a fixed spin magnetic moment-the subsequent transition of both spin sub-systems from the Fermi liquid to the Wigner crystal state. A dramatic signature of Wigner crystallization is that the persistent current drops sharply with increasing r(S). We observe simultaneously the emergence of pronounced oscillations in the spin-resolved densities and in the electron localization functions indicating a spatial electron localization showing ferrimagnetic order after both spin sub-systems have undergone the Wigner crystallization. The critical r(S)(c) at the transition point is substantially smaller than in a fully spin-polarized system and decreases further with decreasing ring width. Relaxing the constraint of a fixed spin magnetic moment, we find that on increasing r(S) the stable phase changes from an unpolarized Fermi liquid to an antiferromagnetic Wigner crystal and finally to a fully polarized Fermi liquid.

Time-dependent density-functional theory meets dynamical mean-field theory: real-time dynamics for the 3D Hubbard model

We introduce a new class of exchange-correlation potentials for a static and time-dependent density-functional theory of strongly correlated systems in 3D. The potentials are obtained via dynamical mean-field theory and, for strong enough interactions, exhibit a discontinuity at half-filling density, a signature of the Mott transition. For time-dependent perturbations, the dynamics is described in the adiabatic local density approximation. Results from the new scheme compare very favorably to exact ones in clusters. As an application, we study Bloch oscillations in the 3D Hubbard model.

Dynamical Coulomb blockade and the derivative discontinuity of time-dependent density functional theory

The role of the discontinuity of the exchange-correlation potential of density functional theory is studied in the context of electron transport and shown to be intimately related to Coulomb blockade. By following the time evolution of an interacting nanojunction attached to biased leads, we find that, instead of evolving to a steady state, the system reaches a dynamical state characterized by correlation-induced current oscillations. Our results establish a dynamical picture of Coulomb blockade manifesting itself as a periodic sequence of charging and discharging of the nanostructure.

Density functional study of collective electron localization: detection by persistent current

We apply the optimized effective potential (OEP) implementation of density functional theory (DFT) to the model system of interacting spinless electrons on a quantum ring. The ring encircles a magnetic flux that induces a persistent current. In a perfect rotationally invariant system the current does not depend on the electron-electron interaction (the latter is characterized by a standard dimensionless parameter r(S)) and hence is not sensitive to the microscopic structure of the electron correlated state. This changes, however, if a symmetry-breaking external potential is introduced or, in a realistic system, due to the crystal lattice potential (Hamer et al 1987 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 20 5677-93). In our model, we calculate the persistent current as a function of r(S) in the presence of a weak Gaussian-shaped 'impurity' potential. We find that while below a threshold value r(S)<r(S)(c)≈2.05 the current is independent of r(S), it decays exponentially for r(S)>r(S)(c). This signals the formation of an electron Wigner crystal pinned by the impurity potential. The electron density, homogeneous below r(S)(c), indeed shows a periodic modulation at r(S)>r(S)(c). The modulation amplitude follows a (r(S)-r(S)(c))((1)/(2)) behaviour which is characteristic for a second-order phase transition, as expected in the mean-field-type DFT-OEP approach. Our calculation shows that the macroscopic current, which is a quantity directly accessible in DFT, can serve as an indicator of the formation of a correlated electron state.

Time-dependent density-functional theory and strongly correlated systems: insight from numerical studies

We illustrate the scope of time-dependent density-functional theory for strongly correlated (lattice) models out of equilibrium. Using the exact many-body time evolution, we reverse engineer the exact exchange correlation (xc) potential v_(xc) for small Hubbard chains exposed to time-dependent fields. We introduce an adiabatic local density approximation to v_(xc) for the 1D Hubbard model and compare it to exact results, to gain insight about approximate xc potentials. Finally, we provide some remarks on the v-representability for the 1D Hubbard model.

Entanglement in spatially inhomogeneous many-fermion systems

We investigate entanglement of strongly interacting fermions in spatially inhomogeneous environments. To quantify entanglement in the presence of spatial inhomogeneity, we propose a local-density approximation (LDA) to the entanglement entropy, and a nested LDA scheme to evaluate the entanglement entropy on inhomogeneous density profiles. These ideas are applied to models of electrons in superlattice structures with different modulation patterns, electrons in a metallic wire in the presence of impurities, and phase-separated states in harmonically confined many-fermion systems, such as electrons in quantum dots and atoms in optical traps. We find that the entanglement entropy of inhomogeneous systems is strikingly different from that of homogeneous systems.

Quantitative determination of the hubbard model phase diagram from optical lattice experiments by two-parameter scaling

We propose an experiment to obtain the phase diagram of the fermionic Hubbard model, for any dimensionality, using cold atoms in optical lattices. It is based on measuring the total energy for a sequence of trap profiles. It combines finite-size scaling with an additional "finite-curvature scaling" necessary to reach the homogeneous limit. We illustrate its viability in the 1D case, simulating experimental data in the Bethe-ansatz local-density approximation. Including experimental errors, the filling corresponding to the Mott transition can be determined with better than 3% accuracy.