The Explicit Density Functional and Its Connection with Entropy Maximization

Abstract

The intrinsic Helmholtz free energy, commonly used as a basis for density functional theories, is here given explicitly as a cluster diagram expansion with density field points. Also given are explicit variational procedures for determining the chemical potential for a given density, the pair potential for a given pair correlation function, and the pair correlation function for a given pair potential. The physical meaning of the density functional is established within the context of a new derivation of statistical mechanics based on entropy that supplies a variational principle for equilibrium by generalizing the thermodynamic potential to nonequlibrium states. This shows that the conventional density functional determines not only the equilibrium density, but also the probability of fluctuations about that density.