Abstract
Recent theory developments in ensemble density functional theory (EDFT) promise to bring decades of work for ground-states to the practical resolution of excited-states - provided newly-discovered "density-driven correlations" can be dealt with and adequate effective potentials can be found. This Letter introduces simple theories for both; and shows that EDFT using these theories outperforms ΔSCF DFT and time-dependent DFT for low-lying gaps in most of the small atoms and molecules tested, even when all use the same density functional approximations. It thus establishes EDFT as a promising tool for low-cost studies of excited states; and provides a clear route to practical EDFT implementation of arbitrary functional approximations.
Supplementary materials
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Supp v4
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