Unified Treatment of Asymptotic van der Waals Forces

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified density-functional approach to accurately model the asymptotic van der Waals forces across various systems using only electron densities and static polarizabilities, simplifying calculations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive framework that unifies the treatment of van der Waals interactions for diverse objects within density-functional theory.

Findings

Results agree with more elaborate calculations for atoms and molecules.

Applicable to atoms, molecules, and surface interactions.

Requires only ground-state densities and static polarizabilities.

Abstract

In a framework for long-range density-functional theory we present a unified full-field treatment of the asymptotic van der Waals interaction for atoms, molecules, surfaces, and other objects. The only input needed consists of the electron densities of the interacting fragments and the static polarizability or the static image plane, which can be easily evaluated in a ground-state density-functional calculation for each fragment. Results for separated atoms, molecules, and for atoms/molecules outside surfaces are in agreement with those of other, more elaborate, calculations.