In Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KS DFT) a fictitious system of noninteracting particles is constructed having the same ground-state (GS) density as the physical system of interest. A fundamental open question in DFT concerns the ability of an exact KS calculation to spot and characterize the GS degeneracies in the physical system. In this Letter we provide theoretical evidence suggesting that the GS density, as a function of position on a 2D manifold of parameters affecting the external potential, is â€øe}topologically scarredâ€ï¿½ in a distinct way by degeneracies. These scars are sufficiently detailed to enable determination of the positions of degeneracies and even the associated Berry phases. We conclude that an exact KS calculation can spot and characterize the degeneracies of the physical system.

We review density functional theory (DFT) within the Kohn-Sham (KS) and the generalized KS (GKS) frameworks from a theoretical perspective for both time-independent and time-dependent problems. We focus on the use of range-separated hybrids within a GKS approach as a practical remedy for dealing with the deleterious long-range self-repulsion plaguing many approximate implementations of DFT. This technique enables DFT to be widely relevant in new realms such as charge transfer, radical cation dimers, and Rydberg excitations. Emphasis is put on a new concept of system-specific range-parameter tuning, which introduces predictive power in applications considered until recently too difficult for DFT.

We study the description of charge-transfer excitations in a series of coumarin-based donor-bridge-acceptor dyes. We show that excellent predictive power for the excitation energies and oscillator strengths in these systems is obtained by using a range-separated hybrid functional within the generalized Kohn–Sham approach to time-dependent density functional theory. Key to this success is a step for tuning the range separation parameter from first principles. We explore different methods for this tuning step, which are variants of a recently suggested approach for charge-transfer excitations [T. Stein et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 2818 (2009)]. We assess the quality of prediction by comparing to excitation energies previously published for the same systems using the approximate coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CC2) method.

We show how charge transfer excitations at molecular complexes can be calculated quantitatively using time-dependent density functional theory. Predictive power is obtained from range-separated hybrid functionals using nonempirical tuning of the range-splitting parameter. Excellent performance of this approach is obtained for a series of complexes composed of various aromatic donors and the tetracyanoethytene acceptor, paving the way to systematic nonempirical quantitative studies of charge-transfer excitations in real systems.

The meaning of orbital energies (OOEs) in Kohn–Sham (KS) density functional theory (DFT) is subject to a longstanding controversy. In local, semilocal, and hybrid density functionals (DFs) a Koopmans’ approach, where OOEs approximate negative ionization potentials (IPs), is unreliable. We discuss a methodology based on the Baer–Neuhauser–Livshits range-separated hybrid DFs for which Koopmans’ approach “springs to life.” The OOEs are remarkably close to the negative IPs with typical deviances of ±0.3 eV down to IPs of 30 eV, as demonstrated on several molecules. An essential component is the ab initio motivated range-parameter tuning procedure, forcing the highest OOE to be exactly equal to the negative first IP. We develop a theory for the curvature of the energy as a function of fractional occupation numbers to explain some of the results.

Density functional theory (DFT) with semilocal functionals such as the local-density and generalized gradients approximations predicts that the dissociative adsorption of oxygen on Al (111) goes through without a barrier in stark contradiction to experimental findings. This problem motivated our study of the reaction of oxygen colliding with a small aluminum cluster Al-5. We found semilocal functionals predict a minute barrier to sticking, associated with smeared long-range charge transfer from the metal to the oxygen. Hybrid B3LYP predicts a larger barrier while the range-separated the Baer-Neuhauser-Livshits (BNL, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2007, 9, 2932.) functional finds a more prominent barrier. BNL predicts short-ranged and more abrupt charge transfer from the surface to the oxygen. We conclude that spurious self-repulsion inherent in semilocal functionals causes early electron-transfer, long-range attraction toward the surface and low reaction barriers for these systems. The results indicate that the missing DFT barrier for O-2 sticking on Al (111) may be due to Spurious self-repulsion.

We developed a method for calculating the ground-state properties and fundamental band-gaps of solids, using a generalized Kohn-Sham approach combining a local density approximation (LDA) functional with a long-range explicit exchange orbital functional. We found that when the range parameter is selected according to the formula gamma = A/(epsilon(infinity) (epsilon) over tilde) where epsilon(infinity) is the optical dielectric constant of the solid and (epsilon) over tilde = 0.84 and A = 0.216 a(0)(-1), predictions of the fundamental band-gap close to the experimental values are obtained for a variety of solids of different types. For most solids the range parameter g is small (i.e. explicit exchange is needed only at long distances) so the predicted values for lattice constants and bulk moduli are similar to those based on conventional LDA calculations. Preliminary calculations on silicon give a general band structure in good agreement with experiment.

Time-dependent (TD) density functional theory (TDDFT) promises a numerically tractable account of many-body electron dynamics provided good simple approximations are developed for the exchange-correlation (XC) potential functional (XCPF). The theory is usually applied within the adiabatic XCPF approximation, appropriate for slowly varying TD driving fields. As the frequency and strength of these fields grows, it is widely held that memory effects kick in and the eligibility of the adiabatic XCPF approximation deteriorates irreversibly. We point out, however, that when a finite system of electrons in its ground-state is gradually exposed to a very a high-frequency and eventually ultra-strong homogeneous electric field, the adiabatic XCPF approximation is in fact rigorously applicable. This result shows that adiabatic XCPF has a larger scope of applicability than previously suspected and in this sense is compliant with recent numerical findings by Thiele et al. [M. Thiele, E.K.U. Gross, S. Kümmel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 (2008) 153004] of negligible memory effects in strong-field double ionization.

We present electronic structure calculations of the ultraviolet/visible (UV?vis) spectra of highly active push?pull chromophores containing the tricyanofuran (TCF) acceptor group. In particular, we have applied the recently developed long-range corrected Baer-Neuhauser-Livshits (BNL) exchange-correlation functional. The performance of this functional compares favorably with other density functional theory (DFT) approaches, including the CAM-B3LYP functional. The accuracy of UV-vis results for these molecules is best at low values of attenuation parameters (\gamma) for both BNL and CAM-B3LYP functionals. The optimal value of \gamma is different for the charge-transfer (CT) and valence excitations. The BNL and PBE0 exchange correlation functionals capture the CT states particularly well, while the ???* excitations are less accurate and system dependent. Chromophore conformations, which considerably affect the molecular hyperpolarizability, do not significantly influence the UV?vis spectra on average. As expected, the color of chromophores is a sensitive function of modifications to its conjugated framework and is not significantly affected by increasing aliphatic chain length linking a chromophore to a polymer. For selected push?pull aryl-chromophores, we find a significant dependence of absorption spectra on the strength of diphenylaminophenyl donors.

Frequency dependent exchange-correlation kernels for time-dependent density functional theory can be used to construct approximate exchange-correlation potentials. The resulting potentials are usually not translationally covariant nor do they obey the so-called zero-force condition. These two basic symmetry requirements are essential for using the potentials in actual applications (even in the linear regime). We provide two pragmatic methods for fully imposing these conditions for both linear and nonlinear regimes. As an example, we take the Gross and Kohn frequency dependent XC functional [Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2850 (1985)], correct it, and numerically test it on a sodium metal cluster. Violation of the basic symmetries causes instabilities or spurious low frequency modes.

The mapping of time-dependent densities on potentials in systems of identical quantum mechanical particles is examined. This mapping is of significance ever since Runge and Gross [Phys. Rev. Lett. 52, 997 (1984)] established its uniqueness, forming the theoretical basis for time-dependent density functional theory. Beyond uniqueness there are two important issues: existence, often called v-representability, and stability. We show that v-representability for localized densities in turn-on situations is not assured and we give a simple example of nonexistence. As for stability, we discuss an inversion procedure and by computing its Lyapunov exponents we demonstrate that the mapping is unstable with respect to fluctuations in the initial state. We argue that such instabilities will plague any inversion procedure.

This Invited Article reports extensions of a recently developed approach to density functional theory with correct long-range behavior (R. Baer and D. Neuhauser, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2005, 94, 043002). The central quantities are a splitting functional \gamma[n] and a complementary exchange-correlation functional E_\gammaXC[n]. We give a practical method for determining the value of \gamma in molecules, assuming an approximation for E_\gammaXC is given. The resulting theory shows good ability to reproduce the ionization potentials for various molecules. However it is not of sufficient accuracy for forming a satisfactory framework for studying molecular properties. A somewhat different approach is then adopted, which depends on a density-independent \gamma and an additional parameter w eliminating part of the local exchange functional. The values of these two parameters are obtained by best-fitting to experimental atomization energies and bond lengths of the molecules in the G2(1) database. The optimized values are \gamma = 0.5 a_0^-1 and w = 0.1. We then examine the performance of this slightly semi-empirical functional for a variety of molecular properties, comparing to related works and experiment. We show that this approach can be used for describing in a satisfactory manner a broad range of molecular properties, be they static or dynamic. Most satisfactory is the ability to describe valence, Rydberg and inter-molecular charge-transfer excitations.

Electron dynamics in metallic clusters are examined using a time-dependent density functional theory that includes a “memory term,” i.e., attempts to describe temporal nonlocal correlations. Using the Iwamoto, Gross, and Kohn exchange-correlation XC kernel, we construct a translationally invariant memory action from which an XC potential is derived that is translationally covariant and exerts zero net force on the electrons. An efficient and stable numerical method to solve the resulting Kohn-Sham equations is presented. Using this framework, we study memory effects on electron dynamics in spherical jellium gold clusters. We find memory significantly broadens the surface plasmon absorption line, yet considerably less than measured in real gold clusters, attributed to the inadequacy of the jellium model. Memory effects on nonlinear spectroscopy are studied as well: a real-time pump-probe setup is used to study the temporal decay profile of the plasmon, finding a fast decay followed by slower tail; and in high harmonic generation, we show that memory narrows and redshifts emission lines.

Real-time first principle simulations are presented of the D2 Coulomb explosion dynamics detonated by exposure to very intense few-cycle laser pulse. Three approximate functionals within the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) functionals are examined for describing the electron dynamics, including time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory. Nuclei are treated classically with quantum corrections. The calculated results are sensitive to the underlying electronic structure theory, showing too narrow kinetic energy distribution peaked at too high kinetic energy when compared with recent experimental results (Phys. Rev. Lett. 2003, 91, 093002). Experiment also shows a low energy peak which is not seen in the present calculation. We conclude that while Ehrenfest-adiabatic-TDDFT can qualitatively account for the dynamics, it requires further development, probably beyond the adiabatic approximation, to be quantitative.

We examine the effects of self-repulsion on the predictions of charge distribution in biased molecular junctions by the local density functional theory methods. This is done using a functional with explicit long-range exchange term effects [R. Baer, D. Neuhauser, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 (2005) 043002]. We discuss in detail the new density functional, pointing out some of the remaining difficulties in the theory. We find that in weakly coupled junctions (the typical molecular electronics case) local-density functionals fail to describe correctly the charge distribution in the intermediate bias regime. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An iterative approach for calculating the frequency domain linear response of molecular systems within time-dependent density-functional theory is presented. The method completely avoids computing the exchange-correlation kernel which is typically the most expensive step for large systems. In particular, virtual orbitals are not needed. This approach may be useful for treating the response of large systems. We give an outline of the theory and a demonstration on a jellium model of an elliptic gold cluster. A detailed theory is appended discussing the computation of conductance and ac impedance of molecular junctions under bias.

Today, most application of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) use adiabatic exchange- correlation (XC) potentials that do not take into account non-local temporal effects. Incorporating such "memory" terms into XC potentials is complicated by the constraint that the derived force and torque densities must integrate to zero at every instance. This requirement can be met by deriving the potentials from an XC action that is Galilean in-variant (GI). We develop a class of simple but flexible forms for an action that respect these constraints. The basic idea is to formulate the action in terms of the Eularian-Lagrangian transformation (ELT) metric tensor, which is itself GI. The general form of the XC potentials in this class is then derived and the linear response limit is derived as well.

We derive an exact representation of the exchange-correlation energy within density functional theory (DFT) which spawns a class of approximations leading to correct long-range asymptotic behavior. Using a simple approximation, we develop an electronic structure theory that combines a new local correlation energy (based on Monte Carlo calculations applied to the homogeneous electron gas) and a combination of local and explicit long-ranged exchange. The theory is applied to several first-row atoms and diatomic molecules where encouraging results are obtained: good description of the chemical bond at the same time allowing for bound anions, reasonably accurate affinity energies, and correct polarizability of an elongated hydrogen chain. Further stringent tests of DFT are passed, concerning ionization potential and charge distribution under large bias

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is a general and robust method allowing the study of electron dynamics whether induced by nuclear motion or by external fields. We give a brief overview of the theory and some numerical methods together with recent applications stressing the generality and wide applicability of the method. We also discuss recent attempts to extend the present TDDFT by incorporating memory terms into the exchange correlation potentials.

Most present applications of time-dependent density functional theory use adiabatic functionals, i.e. the effective potential at time t is determined solely by the density at the same time. This paper discusses a method that aims to go beyond this approximation, by incorporating "memory" effects: the potential will depend not only on present behavior but also on the past. In order to ensure the derived potentials are causal, we formulate the action on the Keldysh contour for electrons in electromagnetic fields, from which we derive suitable Kohn-Sham equations. The exchange correlation action is now a functional of the electron density and velocity field. A specific action functional is constructed which is Galilean invariant and yields a causal vector potential term to the Kohn-Sham equations that incorporates causal memory effects. We show explicitly that the exchange-correlation Lorentz force is zero. The potential is consistent with known dynamical properties of the homogeneous electron gas (in the linear response limit).