Calculation of van der Walls coefficients of alkali metal clusters by hydrodynamic approach to time-dependent density-functional theory

Abstract

In this paper we employ the hydrodynamic formulation of time-dependent density functional theory to obtain the van der Waal coefficients $C_{6}$ and $C_{8}$ of alkali-metal clusters of various sizes including very large clusters. Such calculation becomes computationally very demanding in the orbital-based Kohn-Sham formalism, but quite simple in the hydrodynamic approach. We show that for interactions between the clusters of same sizes, $C_{6}$ and $C_{8}$ sale as the sixth and the eighth power of the cluster radius rsepectively, and approach the respective classically predicted values for the large size clusters.

13 pages with two figures. Submitted to J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys