A discrete density matrix theory for atoms in strong magnetic fields

We construct a density-functional formalism adapted to uniform external magnetic fields that is intermediate between conventional Density Functional Theory and Current-Density Functional Theory (CDFT). In the intermediate theory, which we term LDFT, the basic variables are the density, the canonical momentum, and the paramagnetic contribution to the magnetic moment. Both a constrained-search formulation and a convex formulation in terms of Legendre--Fenchel transformations ar...

We investigate the helium dimer in strong magnetic fields, focusing on the spectrum of low-lying electronic states and their dissociation curves, at the full configuration-interaction level of theory. To address the loss of cylindrical symmetry and angular momentum as a good quantum number for nontrivial angles between the bond axis and magnetic field, we introduce the almost quantized angular momentum (AQAM) and show that it provides useful information about states in arbitr...

Complete modeling of radiative transfer in neutron star atmospheres is in progress, taking into account the anisotropy induced by magnetic fields, non-ideal effects and general relativity. As part of our modeling, we present a novel atomic calculation method producing an extensive atomic data set including energy values and oscillator strengths in the so-called Landau regime ($B > 4.7\times10^9Z^2$ G). Conventional atmosphere models for B=0 are not applicable to typical field...

The energy levels of hydrogen and helium atoms in strong magnetic fields are calculated in this study. The current work contains estimates of the binding energies of the first few low-lying states of these systems that are improvements upon previous estimates. The methodology involves computing the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the generalized two-dimensional Hartree-Fock partial differential equations for these one- and two-electron systems in a self-consistent manner. The...

We consider a relativistic hydrogenic atom in a strong magnetic field. The ground state level depends on the strength of the magnetic field and reaches the lower end of the spectral gap of the Dirac-Coulomb operator for a certain critical value, the critical magnetic field. We also define a critical magnetic field in a Landau level ansatz. In both cases, when the charge Z of the nucleus is not too small, these critical magnetic fields are huge when measured in Tesla, but not ...

We consider the quantum mechanics of an electron trapped on an infinite band along the $x$-axis in the presence of the Morse-like perpendicular magnetic field $\vec{B}=-B_{0}e^{-\frac{2\pi}{a_{0}}x}\hat{k}$ with $B_{0}>0$ as a constant strength and $a_{0}$ as the width of the band. It is shown that the square integrable pure states realize representations of $su(1,1)$ algebra via the quantum number corresponding to the linear momentum in the $y$-direction. The energy of the s...

The problem of a single electron in a magnetic field is revisited from first principles. It is shown that the standard quantization, used by Landau, is inconsistent for this problem, whence Landau's wave functions spontaneously break the gauge symmetry of translations in the plane. Because of this Landau's (and Fock's) wave functions have a spurious second quantum number. The one-body wave function of the physical orbit, with only one quantum number, is derived, and expressed...

The electronic structure of the helium atom in the magnetic field regime B=0-100a.u. is investigated, using a full configuration interaction approach which is based on a nonlinearly optimized anisotropic Gaussian basis set of one-particle functions. The corresponding generalized eigenvalue problem is solved for the magnetic quantum number M=-1 and for both even and odd z-parity as well as singlet and triplet spin symmetry. Accurate total electronic energies of the ground stat...

The problem of interacting electrons moving under the influence of a strong magnetic field in two dimensions on a finite disk is reconsidered. First, the results of exact diagonalizations for up to $N=9$ electrons for Coulomb as well as for a short--range interaction are used in the search for a peculiar ground state corresponding to filling factor $1/3$. Not for the Coulomb, but only for the short--range interaction, can the $1/3$--state be safely identified amongst the spec...

The high-density electron gas in a strong magnetic field B and at zero temperature is investigated. The quantum strong-field limit is considered in which only the lowest Landau level is occupied. It is shown that the perturbation series of the ground-state energy can be represented in analogy to the Gell-Mann Brueckner expression of the ground-state energy of the field-free electron gas. The role of the expansion parameter is taken by r_B= (2/3 \pi^2) (B/m^2) (\hbar r_s /e)^3...