arXiv subjects

K. Capelle

Publications and source records attributed to K. Capelle.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2012

Thermal versus Quantum Fluctuations of Optical Lattice Fermions

We show that, for fermionic atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice, the fraction of atoms in doubly occupied sites is a highly non-monotonic function of temperature. We demonstrate that this property persists even in the presence of realistic harmonic confinement, and that it leads to a suppression of entropy at intermediate temperatures that offers a route to adiabatic cooling. Our interpretation of the suppression is that such intermediate temperatures are simultaneously too high for quantum coherence and too low for significant thermal excitation of double occupancy thus offering a clear indicator of the onset of quantum fluctuations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Quantum mechanics in metric space: wave functions and their densities

Hilbert space combines the properties of two fundamentally different types of mathematical spaces: vector space and metric space. While the vector-space aspects of Hilbert space, such as formation of linear combinations of state vectors, are routinely used in quantum mechanics, the metric-space aspects of Hilbert space are much less exploited. Here we show that a suitable metric stratifies Fock space into concentric spheres. Maximum and minimum distances between wave functions are derived and geometrically interpreted in terms of this metric. Unlike the usual Hilbert-space analysis, our results apply also to the reduced space of only ground-state wave functions and to that of particle densities, each of which forms a metric space but not a Hilbert space. The Hohenberg-Kohn mapping between densities and ground-state wave functions, which is highly complex and nonlocal in coordinate description, is found, for three different model systems, to be very simple in metric space, where it is represented by a monotonic mapping of vicinities onto vicinities. Surprisingly, it is also found to be nearly linear over a wide range of parameters.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Spin gaps and spin-flip energies in density-functional theory

Energy gaps are crucial aspects of the electronic structure of finite and extended systems. Whereas much is known about how to define and calculate charge gaps in density-functional theory (DFT), and about the relation between these gaps and derivative discontinuities of the exchange-correlation functional, much less is know about spin gaps. In this paper we give density-functional definitions of spin-conserving gaps, spin-flip gaps and the spin stiffness in terms of many-body energies and in terms of single-particle (Kohn-Sham) energies. Our definitions are as analogous as possible to those commonly made in the charge case, but important differences between spin and charge gaps emerge already on the single-particle level because unlike the fundamental charge gap spin gaps involve excited-state energies. Kohn-Sham and many-body spin gaps are predicted to differ, and the difference is related to derivative discontinuities that are similar to, but distinct from, those usually considered in the case of charge gaps. Both ensemble DFT and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) can be used to calculate these spin discontinuities from a suitable functional. We illustrate our findings by evaluating our definitions for the Lithium atom, for which we calculate spin gaps and spin discontinuities by making use of near-exact Kohn-Sham eigenvalues and, independently, from the single-pole approximation to TDDFT. The many-body corrections to the Kohn-Sham spin gaps are found to be negative, i.e., single particle calculations tend to overestimate spin gaps while they underestimate charge gaps.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

On the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions

We study the properties of the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions. First we review the derivation of the bound and show how it can be written in a simple density-functional form. This form allows an explicit determination of the prefactor of the bound and testing its tightness. Next we focus on finite two-dimensional systems and examine how their distance from the bound depends on the system geometry. The results for the high-density limit suggest that a finite system that comes as close as possible to the ultimate bound on the exchange-correlation energy has circular geometry and a weak confining potential with a negative curvature.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Lower Bounds on the Exchange-Correlation Energy in Reduced Dimensions

Bounds on the exchange-correlation energy of many-electron systems are derived and tested. By using universal scaling properties of the electron-electron interaction, we obtain the exponent of the bounds in three, two, one, and quasi-one dimensions. From the properties of the electron gas in the dilute regime, the tightest estimate to date is given for the numerical prefactor of the bound, which is crucial in practical applications. Numerical tests on various low-dimensional systems are in line with the bounds obtained, and give evidence of an interesting dimensional crossover between two and one dimensions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Excitation energies from ground-state density-functionals by means of generator coordinates

The generator-coordinate method is a flexible and powerful reformulation of the variational principle. Here we show that by introducing a generator coordinate in the Kohn-Sham equation of density-functional theory, excitation energies can be obtained from ground-state density functionals. As a viability test, the method is applied to ground-state energies and various types of excited-state energies of atoms and ions from the He and the Li isoelectronic series. Results are compared to a variety of alternative DFT-based approaches to excited states, in particular time-dependent density-functional theory with exact and approximate potentials.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2009

Non-empirical hyper-generalized-gradient functionals constructed from the Lieb-Oxford bound

A simple and completely general representation of the exact exchange-correlation functional of density-functional theory is derived from the universal Lieb-Oxford bound, which holds for any Coulomb-interacting system. This representation leads to an alternative point of view on popular hybrid functionals, providing a rationale for why they work and how they can be constructed. A similar representation of the exact correlation functional allows to construct fully non-empirical hyper-generalized-gradient approximations (HGGAs), radically departing from established paradigms of functional construction. Numerical tests of these HGGAs for atomic and molecular correlation energies and molecular atomization energies show that even simple HGGAs match or outperform state-of-the-art correlation functionals currently used in solid-state physics and quantum chemistry.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

Physical signatures of discontinuities of the time-dependent exchange-correlation potential

The exact exchange-correlation (XC) potential in time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) is known to develop steps and discontinuities upon change of the particle number in spatially confined regions or isolated subsystems. We demonstrate that the self-interaction corrected adiabatic local-density approximation for the XC potential has this property, using the example of electron loss of a model quantum well system. We then study the influence of the XC potential discontinuity in a real-time simulation of a dissociation process of an asymmetric double quantum well system, and show that it dramatically affects the population of the resulting isolated single quantum wells. This indicates the importance of a proper account of the discontinuities in TDDFT descriptions of ionization, dissociation or charge transfer processes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Reverse engineering in many-body quantum physics: What many-body system corresponds to an effective single-particle equation?

The mapping, exact or approximate, of a many-body problem onto an effective single-body problem is one of the most widely used conceptual and computational tools of physics. Here, we propose and investigate the inverse map of effective approximate single-particle equations onto the corresponding many-particle system. This approach allows us to understand which interacting system a given single-particle approximation is actually describing, and how far this is from the original physical many-body system. We illustrate the resulting reverse engineering process by means of the Kohn-Sham equations of density-functional theory. In this application, our procedure sheds light on the non-locality of the density-potential mapping of DFT, and on the self-interaction error inherent in approximate density functionals.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Tightened Lieb-Oxford bound for systems of fixed particle number

The Lieb-Oxford bound is a constraint upon approximate exchange-correlation functionals. We explore a non-empirical tightening of that bound in both universal and electron-number-dependent form. The test functional is PBE. Regarding both atomization energies (slightly worsened) and bond lengths (slightly bettered), we find the PBE functional to be remarkably insensitive to the value of the Lieb-Oxford bound. This both rationalizes the use of the original Lieb-Oxford constant in PBE and suggests that enhancement factors more sensitive to sharpened constraints await discovery.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2008

Dependence of response functions and orbital functionals on occupation numbers

Explicitly orbital-dependent approximations to the exchange-correlation energy functional of density functional theory typically not only depend on the single-particle Kohn-Sham orbitals but also on their occupation numbers in the ground state Slater determinant. The variational calculation of the corresponding exchange-correlation potentials with the Optimized Effective Potential (OEP) method therefore also requires a variation of the occupation numbers with respect to a variation in the effective single-particle potential, which is usually not taken into account. Here it is shown under which circumstances this procedure is justified.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2008

Exact and approximate relations for the spin-dependence of the exchange energy in high magnetic fields

The exchange energy of an arbitrary collinear-spin many-body system in an external magnetic field is a functional of the spin-resolved charge and current densities, $E_x[n_{\uparrow},n_{\downarrow},j_{\uparrow},j_{\downarrow}]$. Within the framework of density-functional theory (DFT), we show that the dependence of this functional on the four densities can be fully reconstructed from either of two extreme limits: a fully polarized system or a completely unpolarized system. Reconstruction from the limit of an unpolarized system yields a generalization of the Oliver-Perdew spin scaling relations from spin-DFT to current-DFT. Reconstruction from the limit of a fully polarized system is used to derive the high-field form of the local-spin-density approximation to current-DFT and to magnetic-field DFT.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2008

Comparison of three different self-interaction corrections for an exactly solvable model system

A systematic comparison of three approximate self-interaction corrections (SICs), Perdew-Zunger SIC, Lundin-Eriksson SIC and extended Fermi-Amaldi SIC, is performed for a model Hamiltonian whose exact many-body solution and exact local-density approximation (LDA) are known. For each of the three proposals we compare its implementation only for the potential, only for the energy, i.e., a post-LDA evaluation of the SIC energy), to none of them, i.e., a standard LDA calculation) and to both. Each of the resulting 10 permutations of methodologies is applied to 420 Hubbard chains differing in size, particle number and interaction strength. A statistical analysis of the resulting data set reveals trends and permits to assess the performance of each methodology. Overall, but not in each individual case, a post-LDA application of Perdew-Zunger SIC emerges as the recommended methodology.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2008

Contribution of the second Landau level to the exchange energy of the three-dimensional electron gas in a high magnetic field

We derive a closed analytical expression for the exchange energy of the three-dimensional interacting electron gas in strong magnetic fields, which goes beyond the quantum limit (L=0) by explicitly including the effect of the second, L=1, Landau level and arbitrary spin polarization. The inclusion of the L=1 level brings the fields to which the formula applies closer to the laboratory range, as compared to previous expressions, valid only for L=0 and complete spin polarization. We identify, and explain, two distinct regimes, separated by a critical density $n_c$. Below $n_c$, the per-particle exchange energy is lowered by the contribution of L=1, whereas above $n_c$ it is increased. As special cases of our general equation we recover various known, more limited, results for higher fields, and identify and correct a few inconsistencies in some of these earlier expressions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2008

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.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Empirical analysis of the Lieb-Oxford bound in ions and molecules

Universal properties of the Coulomb interaction energy apply to all many-electron systems. Bounds on the exchange-correlation energy, inparticular, are important for the construction of improved density functionals. Here we investigate one such universal property -- the Lieb-Oxford lower bound -- for ionic and molecular systems. In recent work [J. Chem. Phys. 127, 054106 (2007)], we observed that for atoms and electron liquids this bound may be substantially tightened. Calculations for a few ions and molecules suggested the same tendency, but were not conclusive due to the small number of systems considered. Here we extend that analysis to many different families of ions and molecules, and find that for these, too, the bound can be empirically tightened by a similar margin as for atoms and electron liquids. Tightening the Lieb-Oxford bound will have consequences for the performance of various approximate exchange-correlation functionals.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2007

Orbital-polarization terms: from a phenomenological to a first-principles description of orbital magnetism in density-functional theory

Phenomenological orbital-polarization (OP) terms have been repeatedly introduced in the single-particle equations of spin-density-functional theory, in order to improve the description of orbital magnetic moments in systems containing transition metal ions. Here we show that these ad hoc corrections can be interpreted as approximations to the exchange-correlation vector potential A_xc of current-density-functional theory (CDFT). This connection provides additional information on both approaches: Phenomenological OP terms are connected to first-principles theory, leading to a rationale for their empirical success and a reassessment of their limitations and the approximations made in their derivation. Conversely, the connection of OP terms with CDFT leads to a set of simple approximations to the CDFT potential A_xc, with a number of desirable features that are absent from electron-gas-based functionals.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2007

Simple quantitative estimate of the derivative discontinuity of the exchange-correlation functional in atoms and molecules

The derivative discontinuity of the exchange-correlation functional of density-functional theory is cast as the difference of two types of electron affinities. We show that standard Kohn-Sham calculations can be used to calculate both affinities, and that their difference benefits from substantial and systematic error cancellations, permitting reliable estimates of the derivative discontinuity. Numerical calculations for atoms and molecules show that the discontinuity is quite large (typically several eV), and significantly and consistently improves the agreement of the calculated fundamental energy gap with the experimental gaps. The percentage error of the single-particle gap is reduced in favorable cases by more than one order of magnitude, and even in unfavorable cases by about a factor of two.

physics.chem-ph↗