SPIN-POLARIZED HE-3 IN A DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL FRAME

The properties of spin-polarized liquid helium are analyzed in a densi ty-functional framework. It is shown that the BHN functional [M. Barra nco et al., Phys. Rev. B 54, 7394 (1996)] designed to describe the the rmodynamics and the response of the unpolarized liquid also reproduces reasonably well recent experimental results at low magnetization. In particular, the present description reproduces the magnetic field data for the weakly polarized liquid, and is also consistent with the exis tence of a near-metamagnetic transition at a polarization close to 0.2 . We indicate the various difficulties associated with the extension o f the current scenario to highly and fully magnetized systems. [S0163- 1829(98)09541-1].