Semiclassical density functional theory: Strutinsky energy corrections in quantum dots - art. no. 125339

We develop a semiclassical density functional theory in the context of quan tum dots. Coulomb blockade conductance oscillations have been measured in s everal experiments using nanostructured quantum dots. The statistical prope rties of these oscillations remain puzzling, however, particularly the stat istics of spacings between conductance peaks. To explore the role that resi dual interactions may play in the spacing statistics, we consider many-body systems that include electron-electron interactions through an explicit de nsity functional. First, we develop an approximate series expansion for obt aining the ground state using the idea of the Strutinsky shell correction m ethod. Next, we relate the second-order semiclassical corrections to the sc reened Coulomb potential. Finally, we investigate the validity of the appro ximation method by numerical calculation of a one-dimensional model system, and show the relative magnitudes of the successive terms as a function of particle number.