A LOCAL-SCALING APPROACH TO THE DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL THEORY OF ELECTRONIC STATES OF ATOMS

As an efficient method for rapid calculation of electronic states of atoms and ions, a new approach is proposed. In this method, the electron density is determined by a local scale change to a reference density which can easily be evaluated. A series of calculations are made for Ar-isoelectronic sequence and several rare gas like atoms by using the reference densities with inter-electronic interactions disregarded. A detailed numerical examination indicates that the present method, in spite of its simplicity, yields good approximate solutions for the electronic states of atoms and ions. In fact, the results of the present method are in good agreement with those of the self-consistent field. The agreement is particularly good in the case of highly ionized atoms, indicating the usefulness of the method in ion physics.