Harris functional and related methods for calculating total energies in density-functional theory

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Abstract
The simplified energy functional of Harris has given results of useful accuracy for systems well outside the limits of weakly interacting fragments for which the method was originally proposed. In the present study, we discuss the source of the frequent good agreement of the Harris energy with full Kohn-Sham self-consistent results. A procedure is described for extending the applicability of the scheme to more strongly interacting systems by going beyond the frozen-atom fragment approximation. A gradient-force expression is derived, based on the Harris functional, which accounts for errors in the fragment charge representation. Results are presented for some diatomic molecules, illustrating the points of this study.