English

A Verbose Note on Density Functional Theory

Chemical Physics 2024-12-31 v1

Abstract

This note is intended for expanding the details on the derivation and properties of density functional theory, in hope to make them more systematic, better motivated, and step-by-step for readers new to the domain. The note starts with basic concepts in quantum mechanics, then takes the step towards many-body systems using the tools of second quantization and Fock space, with some highlights on properties of the Coulomb system. Given these general technical preparations, the Hartree-Fock method is naturally unrolled, with expressions for various cases and quantities. Density functional theory is then presented, with a motivating reasoning of the Kohn-Sham formulation, and a connection and comparison of the expressions with the Hartree-Fock method. Lieb's celebrated 1983 paper on functional analysis on density functionals is also summarized.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2412.20441,
  title  = {A Verbose Note on Density Functional Theory},
  author = {Chang Liu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.20441},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:51:05.495Z