Statistical Theory of the Atom in Momentum Space

Abstract

We investigate a semiclassical momentum density energy functional for atoms and show that it yields the same value as the well-known Thomas-Fermi functional. In fact, we show an explicit relation between the minimizers of the two functionals. The main result is that the atomic momentum density converges on the scale $Z^{2/3}$ to the minimizer of the momentum density energy functional. This allows to determine the linear response of atoms on momentum dependent perturbations.

References in corpus (1)

• Ground state energy of large atoms in a self-generated magnetic field

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Mathematical Elements of Density Functional Theory
• Speeches by V. F. Weisskopf, J. H. Van Vleck, I. I. Rabi, M. Hamermesh, B. T. Feld, R. P. Feynman, and D. Saxon, given in honor of Julian Schwinger at his 60th birthday
• Julian Schwinger and the Semiclassical Atom
• The Statistical Atom
• Energy functionals of single-particle densities: A unified view