Electronic density

In quantum mechanics, and in particular in quantum chemistry, the electronic density ho corresponding to an N-electron wavefunction Psi^{(N)} is the one-electron function given by

Related Topics:
Quantum mechanics - Quantum chemistry - Wavefunction

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ho(x)=int dx_2 ... dx_N |Psi^{(N)}(x,x_2,...,x_N)|^2

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In the case Psi^{(N)} is a Slater determinant made of N spin orbitals arphi_k:

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ho(x)={1 over N}sum_{k=1}^N |arphi_k(x)|^2

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The two-electron electronic density is given by

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ho(x,x')=int dx_3 ... dx_N |Psi^{(N)}(x,x',x_3,...,x_N)|^2

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Those quantities are particularly important in the context of density functional theory.

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The coordinates x used here are the spin-spatial coordinates.

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