Asymptotics of the ground state energy of heavy molecules in a strong magnetic field. I (Q1264848)

The author establishes an asymptotic formula for the ground state energy of molecules of charge \(Z\) in the presence of a strong homogeneous magnetic field of strength \(B\) in the limit of large \(Z\). His general assumptions are that the number of electrons \(N\) and \(Z\) are comparable and that the magnetic field obeys \(B=O(N^3)\). The leading term of this expansion was found by \textit{E. H. Lieb, J. P. Solovej} and \textit{J. Yngvason} [Commun. Math. Phys. 161, No.~1, 77--124 (1994; Zbl 0807.47058)]. For moderate magnetic field the author recovers known asymptotic formulae: If \(B= O(N^{4/3})\) the magnetic field does not influence the first two terms yielding just the Thomas-Fermi energy plus the Scott correction of the field free case generalizing previous results of \textit{W. Hughes} (Zbl 0715.46046), \textit{H. Siedentop} and \textit{R. Weikard} (Zbl 0689.34011, Zbl 0762.47022), and \textit{V. Ya. Ivrii} and \textit{I. M. Sigal} (Zbl 0789.35135). If \(B=O(N)\), then the next order is also untouched, i.e., one obtains the previous two terms plus the Schwinger correction generalizing a result of \textit{C. L. Fefferman} and \textit{L. A. Seco} (Zbl 0797.34083, Zbl 0811.34063, Zbl 0820.35113, Zbl 0826.34070, Zbl 0845.34086). A main technical difficulty is to overcome an infinite series of points of non-smoothness of the underlying magnetic Thomas-Fermi potential.