Subject: is DFT ab initio

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 09:09:12 -0400 (EDT)

Depuis que tout le monde boit du champagne
on doit se demander si ce que l'on boit est vraiment
du champagne!

Obviously a question like "is DFT ab inito?"
will not be asked by a connaisseur!

Or may be we need to revised the definition
of ab initio and semi-empirical ..., based 
on how the functionals in DFT are parametrized
as well as how the basis set in HF are contracted.

I have also a question:
Is the Kohn-Sham methodology has come to a limit?
because we see more and more that one functional alone
can not treat at the same time with the same degree of 
accuracy both metallic and biological systems

I will be delighted to hear one answer coming from a
gourou who's working on solving directly the DFT
equation and from one who's working with the SCF-KS method

"Hope of a deliverance from the darkness that surrounds us"
                                  Paul McCartney

Suzanne Sirois
Centre de Recherche en Calcul Applique (CERCA)
[email-masked]