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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
An effective potential and an associated electron density in a partially ionized high-Z ion are evaluated within the framework of the Thomas–Fermi–Dirac–Weizsäcker statistical model of atoms. The results are then injected as an initial input into the one-electron Schrödinger equation, a procedure based on the density functional theory. The self-consistency between the two approaches is examined. For a partially ionized ion at zero and finite temperatures, a number of bound electrons is counted by a sum over the principal quantum number, which diverges due to the contribution from shallow bound (Rydberg) levels. A truncation of this sum is devised by application of the Planck–Larkin scheme to the Fermi distribution