High-density jellium-model calculation of force between half-planes of a nearly-free-electron metal at small separation

N. H. March and B. V. Paranjape
Phys. Rev. B 30, 3131 – Published 15 September 1984
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Abstract

The high-density limit of the jellium model is used to study the kinetic energy T(z) of the electron gas as bulk jellium is separated into two half-planes at distance z. It is shown that, for qz1, where q1 is the Thomas-Fermi screening length, the Taylor expansion of T(z) around z=0 contains, in particular, a quadratic term with a coefficient proportional to rs112, where rs is the mean interelectronic separation. Using the virial theorem, this same rs dependence is shown to appear in the quadratic term in the expansion of the total energy E(z). It is thereby argued that in the limit rs0 the constant in the force F(z)=Az for small z in real metals, calculated from phonondispersion relations, must tend to a limit proportional to rs112. Possible implications of this result for prediction of the surface energy of simple metals are briefly considered.

  • Received 11 January 1984

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.30.3131

©1984 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

N. H. March

  • Theoretical Chemistry Department, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, England

B. V. Paranjape

  • Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2J1

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Vol. 30, Iss. 6 — 15 September 1984

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