English

A new look at Thomas-Fermi Theory

Mathematical Physics 2016-01-05 v1 math.MP Chemical Physics

Abstract

In this short note we argue that Thomas-Fermi Theory the simplest of all density functional theories, although failing to explain features such as binding or stability of negative ions, is surprisingly accurate in estimating sizes of atoms. We give both numerical, experimental and rigorous mathematical evidence for this claim. Motivated by this we formulate two new mathematical conjectures on the exactness of Thomas-Fermi Theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1601.00497,
  title  = {A new look at Thomas-Fermi Theory},
  author = {Jan Philip Solovej},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.00497},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

8 pages. Submitted version. Molecular Physics. Published online 30 Dec. 2015

R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:22:28.256Z