Abstract
The explicit form of the first-order density matrix ρ(r1,r2) for independent electrons moving in a bare Coulomb field is first set up for the case of K plus L closed shells. The density matrix has a simple separable form in terms of the variables r1+r2 and ‖r1 r2‖, a property exclusive to the Coulomb potential. Also, the off-diagonal dependence is simply quadratic in ‖r1 r2‖. These two properties allow ρ(r1,r2) to be written solely in terms of electron and kinetic energy densities. Other implications for density-functional theory are briefly referred to.