Fluctuation attraction in condensed matter: A nonlocal functional approach

By exploiting the analogy between the correlation charge surrounding an electron in an interacting electron gas and the electronic charge localized about nuclei in condensed atomic systems, we are led to a functional approach which partially preserves the nonlocality of fluctuations in an inhomogeneous system. In this way, the van der Waals and Axilrod-Teller interactions are determined solely from the fluctuation properties of the electron gas. The approach gives further insight into the local-density approximation.