KINETIC ENERGY FUNCTIONALS: EXACT ONES FROM ANALYTIC MODEL WAVE FUNCTIONS AND APPROXIMATE ONES IN ORBITAL-FREE MOLECULAR DYNAMICS

Abstract

We consider the problem of constructing kinetic energy functionals in density functional theory. We first discuss the functional generated through the application of local-scaling transformations to the exact analytic wavefunctions for the Hookean model of 4He (a finite mass three-particle system), and contrast this result with a previous one for ∞He (infinite mass system). It is shown that an exact non-Born-Oppenheimer treatment not only leads to mass-correction terms in the kinetic energy, but to a basically different functional expression. In addition, we report and comment on some recently advanced approximate kinetic energy functionals generated in the context of the constraint-based approach to orbital-free molecular dynamics. The positivity and non-singularity of a new family of kinetic energy functionals specifically designed for orbital-free molecular dynamics is discussed. Finally, we present some conclusions.