Ground-state energy as a simple sum of orbital energies in Kohn-Sham theory: a shift in perspective through a shift in potential.

It is observed that the exact interacting ground-state electronic energy of interest may be obtained directly, in principle, as a simple sum of orbital energies when a universal density-dependent term is added to w([ρ];r), the familiar Hartree plus exchange-correlation component in the Kohn-Sham effective potential. The resultant shifted potential, wover ¯, actually changes less on average than w([ρ];r) when the density changes, including the fact that wover ¯ does not undergo a discontinuity when the number of electrons increases through an integer. Thus, the approximation of wover ¯ represents an alternative direct approach for the approximation of the ground-state energy and density.