Knight Shifts in Simple Metals: A Single-Ion Approach

Abstract

We present a linear-response formulation of Knight shifts in metals based on the density-functional theory. The approach emphasizes the importance of achieving self-consistency with respect to both the charge and spin densities and includes core polarization. An application to simple metals indicates that, in this case, the Knight shift is essentially a local property, independent of structure. Satisfactory agreement with experiment is achieved.