Density functional theory beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation: Exact mapping onto an electronically non-interacting Kohn-Sham molecule

Abstract: This work presents an alternative, general, and in-principle exact extension of electronic Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KS-DFT) to the fully quantum-mechanical molecular problem. Unlike in existing multi-component or exact-factorization-based DFTs of electrons and nuclei, both nuclear and electronic densities are mapped onto a fictitious electronically non-interacting molecule (referred to as KS molecule), where the electrons still interact with the nuclei. Moreover, in the present molecular KS-DFT, no assumption is made about the mathematical form (exactly factorized or not) of the molecular wavefunction. By expanding the KS molecular wavefunction `a la Born-Huang, we obtain a self-consistent set of "KS beyond Born-Oppenheimer" electronic equations coupled to nuclear equations that describe nuclei interacting among themselves and with non-interacting electrons. An exact adiabatic connection formula is derived for the Hartree-exchange-correlation energy of the electrons within the molecule and, on that basis, a practical adiabatic density-functional approximation is proposed and discussed.