Density functional calculation of ground and excited states of negative atoms

Accurate determination of negative ions pose considerable challenge in both theory and experiment. Present study extends the validity and domain of a density functional theory (DFT)-based formalism, found quite successful for a wide variety of atomic excited states, in regards to the case of ground and metastable bound excited states of atomic anions. The local work-function-based exchange and nonlocal Lee-Yang-Parr correlation potential is used, while the radial Kohn-Sham equation is solved by means of generalized pseudospectral method. A number of quantities such as total energy, radial density, density moment and transition wavelength for the anions of first and second-row atoms show reasonably good agreement with available theoretical and experimental results. For example, absolute deviation in total energy remains within 0.007-0.171\% for Li$^-$ and Be$^-$, while the transition wavelengths show absolute deviation of 0.891\% and 0.438\% relative to the experimental values. In short, this offers a simple practical route towards accurate and reliable calculation of ground and excited states of atomic negative ions.