In modeling low-dimensional electronic nanostructures, the evaluation of the electron-electron interaction is a challenging task. Here we present an accurate and practical density-functional approach to the two-dimensional many-electron problem. In particular, we show that spin-density functionals in the class of meta-generalized-gradient approximations can be greatly simplified by reducing the explicit dependence on the Kohn-Sham orbitals to the dependence on the electron spin density and its spatial derivatives. Tests on various quantum-dot systems show that the overall accuracy is well preserved, if not even improved, by the modifications.
@article{arxiv.1009.4292,
title = {Laplacian-level density functionals for the exchange-correlation energy of low-dimensional nanostructures},
author = {S. Pittalis and E. Rasanen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.4292},
year = {2010}
}