Exact-exchange spin-current density-functional theory

DFT exchange: sharing perspectives on the workhorse of quantum chemistry and materials science

In this paper, the history, present status, and future of density-functional theory (DFT) is informally reviewed and discussed by 70 workers in the field, including molecular scientists, materials scientists, method developers and practitioners. The format of the paper is that of a roundtable discussion, in which the participants express and exchange views on DFT in the form of 302 individual contributions, formulated as responses to a preset list of 26 questions. Supported by a bibliography of 777 entries, the paper represents a broad snapshot of DFT, anno 2022.

Computational schemes for the ground-state pair density

We reconfirm the performance of the initial scheme for calculating the ground-state pair density (Higuchi and Higuchi 2007 Physica B 387 117, 2008 Phys. Rev. B 78 125101) by using the alternative approximation of the correlating kinetic energy functional. It is shown that about 20% of the correlation energy can be reproduced by the initial scheme, irrespective of the approximate form of the correlating kinetic energy functional. On the basis of the initial scheme, various kinds of schemes that go beyond the initial one can be developed. We illustrate two kinds of computational schemes.

Quantum theory of orbital magnetization and its generalization to interacting systems

Based on standard perturbation theory, we present a full quantum derivation of the formula for the orbital magnetization in periodic systems. The derivation is generally valid for insulators with or without a Chern number, for metals at zero or finite temperatures, and at weak as well as strong magnetic fields. The formula is shown to be valid in the presence of electron-electron interaction, provided the one-electron energies and wave functions are calculated self-consistently within the framework of the exact current and spin-density functional theory.

Simultaneous equations for calculating the pair density

We propose a practical scheme for calculating the pair density (PD) on the basis of the density functional theory. In order to avoid the N-representability problem of the PD, we implement the variational principle within the set of PDs that are constructed from the single Slater determinants (SSDs). For the kinetic energy functional, we utilize the approximate form that is developed by means of the electron-coordinate scaling laws. The variational principle results in the simultaneous equations for constituent orbitals of the SSD. It yields the best one within the SSD-representable PDs.

Spin-potential functional formalism for current-carrying noncollinear magnetic systems

We develop a formalism dual to spin-current-density functional theory (CDFT) where minimization with respect to the scalar and vector spin potentials is used. In this way we circumvent the issues surrounding the nonuniqueness of the mapping between spin potentials and ground-state wave functions, and the v representability issue of current-density functionals. The approach applied within the Kohn-Sham formalism provides the foundations for the optimized effective potential method for CDFT.