The explicit density functional and its connection with entropy maximization (Q5928251)

Density functional theory for inhomogeneous fluids is based on the minimization of a functional like the free energy of the density distribution. Conventionally this functional is given only as an implicit function or by approximation. In this paper the author derives an explicit representation of the intrinsic free energy as a formal cluster diagram expansion with density field points. He also establishes a physical meaning of the density functional in a new derivation of statistical mechanics based on entropy maximization. The density functional is the fluctuation potential, which is essentially the negative constrained total entropy. It determines the nonequilibrium density fluctuations.