Jellium work function for all electron densities

The work function and surface energy of jellium have been calculated for low (rₒ=12), metallic (2rₒ6), and high (0. 5rₒ2) bulk electron densities. As the density increases, the work function peaks at 3. 8 eV (rₒ=1. 7), minimizes at 3. 6 eV (rₒ=0. 9, a density higher than that of metastable metallic hydrogen), peaks again at 3. 7 eV (rₒ=0. 6), and finally drops toward a high-density limit around 2. 0 eV (rₒ0). The self-consistent calculations, which employ an accurate electron-gas exchange-correlation energy within the local-density approximation, are numerically challenging at high densities. Exchange-only calculations, which display the same double-peaked density dependence, are also reported. The high-density limits for the work function with and without correlation (2. 0 and 1. 0 eV, respectively) have been estimated in two ways: (1) from an extension of Peuckert's argument, and (2) from the Thomas-Fermi-Dirac-Gombas approximation.