A discrete density matrix theory for atoms in strong magnetic fields

We report on a numerical study of the density matrix functional introduced by Lieb, Solovej and Yngvason for the investigation of heavy atoms in high magnetic fields. This functional describes {\em exactly} the quantum mechanical ground state of atoms and ions in the limit when the nuclear charge $Z$ and the electron number $N$ tend to infinity with $N/Z$ fixed, and the magnetic field $B$ tends to infinity in such a way that $B/Z^{4/3}\to\infty$. We have calculated electronic...

We study the ground state properties of an atom with nuclear charge $Z$ and $N$ bosonic ``electrons'' in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field $B$. We investigate the mean field limit $N\to\infty$ with $N/Z$ fixed, and identify three different asymptotic regions, according to $B\ll Z^2$, $B\sim Z^2$, and $B\gg Z^2$. In Region 1 standard Hartree theory is applicable. Region 3 is described by a one-dimensional functional, which is identical to the so-called Hyper-Strong ...

Let E(B,Z,N) denote the ground state energy of an atom with N electrons and nuclear charge Z in a homogeneous magnetic field B. We study the asymptotics of E(B,Z,N) as $B\to \infty$ with N and Z fixed but arbitrary. It is shown that the leading term has the form $(\ln B)^2 e(Z,N)$, where e(Z,N) is the ground state energy of a system of N {\em bosons} with delta interactions in {\em one} dimension. This extends and refines previously known results for N=1 on the one hand, and ...

This paper deals with the comparison between the strong Thomas-Fermi theory and the quantum mechanical ground state energy of a large atom confined to lowest Landau band wave functions. Using the tools of microlocal semiclassical spectral asymptotics we derive precise error estimates. The approach presented in this paper suggests the definition of a modified strong Thomas-Fermi functional, where the main modification consists in replacing the integration over the variables pe...

Electrons in strong magnetic fields can be described by one-dimensional models in which the Coulomb potential and interactions are replaced by regularizations associated with the lowest Landau band. For a large class of models of these type, we show that the maximum number of electrons that can be bound is less than a Z + Z f(Z). The function f(Z) represents a small non-linear growth which is quadratic in log Z when the magnetic field strength grows polynomially with the nucl...

We study confinement of the ground state of atoms in strong magnetic fields to different subspaces related to the lowest Landau band. The results obtained allow us to calculate the quantum current in the entire semiclassical region $B \ll Z^3$.

We have studied the physics of atoms with permanent electric dipole moment and non vanishing magnetic moment interacting with an electric field and inhomogeneous magnetic field. This system can be demonstrated as the atomic analogue of Landau quantization of charged particles in a uniform magnetic field. This Landau-like atomic problem is also studied with space-space noncommutative coordinates.

We propose three effective Hamiltonians which approximate atoms in very strong homogeneous magnetic fields $B$ modelled by the Pauli Hamiltonian, with fixed total angular momentum with respect to magnetic field axis. All three Hamiltonians describe $N$ electrons and a fixed nucleus where the Coulomb interaction has been replaced by $B$-dependent one-dimensional effective (vector valued) potentials but without magnetic field. Two of them are solvable in at least the one electr...

We consider asymptotics of the ground state energy of heavy atoms and molecules in the self-generatedl magnetic field. Namely, we consider $$H=((D-A)\cdot\boldsymbol{\sigma})^2-V$$ with $$V=\sum_{1\le m\le M} \frac{Z_m}{|x-y_m|}$$ and a corresponding Multiparticle Quantum Hamiltonian $$ \mathsf{H}=\sum_{1\le n\le N} H_{x_n} +\sum_{1\le n < n'\le N}|x_n-x_n'|^{-1} $$ on the Fock space $\wedge _{1\le n\le N} L^2(\mathbb{R}^3, \mathbb{C}^2)$. Here $A=A^0+A'$ where $A^0=\frac{1}{...

We present new, ab initio calculations of the electronic structure of one-dimensional infinite chains and three-dimensional condensed matter in strong magnetic fields ranging from B=10^12 G to 2x10^15 G, appropriate for observed magnetic neutron stars. At these field strengths, the magnetic forces on the electrons dominate over the Coulomb forces, and to a good approximation the electrons are confined to the ground Landau level. Our calculations are based on the density funct...