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The Thomas–Fermi (TF) model,〔 〕〔 〕 named after Llewellyn Thomas and Enrico Fermi, is a quantum mechanical theory for the electronic structure of many-body systems developed semiclassically shortly after the introduction of the Schrödinger equation. It stands separate from wave function theory as being formulated in terms of the electronic density alone and as such is viewed as a precursor to modern density functional theory. The TF model is correct only in the limit of an infinite nuclear charge. Using the approximation for realistic systems yields poor quantitative predictions, even failing to reproduce some general features of the density such as shell structure in atoms and Friedel oscillations in solids. It has, however, found modern applications in many fields through the ability to extract qualitative trends analytically and with the ease at which the model can be solved. The kinetic energy expression of Thomas–Fermi theory is also used as a component in more sophisticated density approximation to the kinetic energy within modern orbital-free density functional theory. Working independently, Thomas and Fermi used this statistical model in 1927 to approximate the distribution of electrons in an atom. Although electrons are distributed nonuniformly in an atom, an approximation was made that the electrons are distributed uniformly in each small volume element ''ΔV'' (i.e. locally) but the electron density can still vary from one small volume element to the next. == Kinetic energy == For a small volume element ''ΔV'', and for the atom in its ground state, we can fill out a spherical momentum space volume ''Vf'' up to the Fermi momentum ''p''''f'' , and thus,〔March 1992, p.24〕 : where is a point in ''ΔV''. The corresponding phase space volume is : The electrons in ''ΔVph'' are distributed uniformly with two electrons per ''h3'' of this phase space volume, where ''h'' is Planck's constant.〔Parr and Yang 1989, p.47〕 Then the number of electrons in ''ΔVph'' is : The number of electrons in ''ΔV'' is : where is the electron density. Equating the number of electrons in ''ΔV'' to that in ''ΔVph'' gives, : The fraction of electrons at that have momentum between ''p'' and ''p+dp'' is, : Using the classical expression for the kinetic energy of an electron with mass ''me'', the kinetic energy per unit volume at for the electrons of the atom is, : where a previous expression relating to has been used and, : Integrating the kinetic energy per unit volume over all space, results in the total kinetic energy of the electrons,〔March 1983, p. 5, Eq. 11〕 : This result shows that the total kinetic energy of the electrons can be expressed in terms of only the spatially varying electron density according to the Thomas–Fermi model. As such, they were able to calculate the energy of an atom using this expression for the kinetic energy combined with the classical expressions for the nuclear-electron and electron-electron interactions (which can both also be represented in terms of the electron density). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas–Fermi model」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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