Progress in Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory

The classic density-functional theory (DFT) formalism introduced by Hohenberg, Kohn, and Sham in the mid-1960s is based on the idea that the complicated N-electron wave function can be replaced with the mathematically simpler 1-electron charge density in electronic structure calculations of the ground stationary state. As such, ordinary DFT cannot treat time-dependent (TD) problems nor describe excited electronic states. In 1984, Runge and Gross proved a theorem making TD-DFT formally exact. Information about electronic excited states may be obtained from this theory through the linear response (LR) theory formalism. Beginning in the mid-1990s, LR-TD-DFT became increasingly popular for calculating absorption…