Quantum-mechanical origin of the asymptotic effective potential at metal surfaces

Abstract

In recent work we interpreted the exchange-correlation potential of density-functional theory to be the work done by an electron against the electric field of its Fermi-Coulomb hole charge distribution. A consequence of this interpretation is that the asymptotic structure of the effective potential of interacting nonuniform electronic systems is due to Pauli correlations. In this paper we show the asymptotic structure of the work required against the field of the delocalized Fermi hole at metallic surfaces to be the image potential.