Including nonlocality in the exchange-correlation kernel from time-dependent current density functional theory: Application to the stopping power of electron liquids

Abstract

We develop a scheme for building the scalar exchange-correlation (XC) kernel of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) from the tensorial kernel of time-dependent current density functional theory (TDCDFT) and the Kohn-Sham current density response function. Resorting to the local approximation to the kernel of TDCDFT results in a nonlocal approximation to the kernel of TDDFT, which is free of the contradictions that plague the standard local density approximation (LDA) to TDDFT. As an application of this general scheme, we calculate the dynamical XC contribution to the stopping power of electron liquids for slow ions to find that our results are in considerably better agreement with experiment than those obtained using TDDFT in the conventional LDA.