Lei Wang, ETH Zurich

Density functional theory for static and dynamic properties of cold atomic gases

Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zurich

Since the landmark work of Hohenberg and Kohn in 1965, density functional theory has been widely used in ab initio simulations in solids state, materials and bio physics. With a novel energy functional for ultracold repulsive fermionic atoms derived from quantum Monte-Carlo calculations of homogeneous systems we can use the extensive toolset developed for materials also for atomic gases. We studied ferromagnetism in harmonic traps and shallow optical lattices and simulate collision dynamics of atomic clouds. These applications allow us to explore limitations of DFT functionals across ferromagnetic phase transitions and to potentially improve simulation methods for materials.