Thomas-fermi and related theories of atoms and molecules

Abstract

This article is a summary of what is know rigorously about Thomas-Fermi (TF) theory with and without the Dirac and von Weizs\"acker corrections. It is also shown that TF theory agrees asymptotically, in a certain sense, with nonrelativistic quantum theory as the nuclear charge $z$ tends to infinity. The von Weizs\"acker correction is shown to correct certain undesirable features of TF theory and to yield a theory in much better agreement with what is believed (but as yet unproved) to be the structure of real atoms. Many open problems in the theory are presented.