ABSTRACT

We present an overview of our work in developing hydrodynamic-

based methods for studying the structure and quantum dynamics of

rare-gas clusters. We use a hydrodynamical approach based on the

Bohm description of quantum mechanics (QM) to satisfy an orbital-

free density functional-like Euler-Lagrange equation for the ground

state of the system. In addition, we use an information theoretical

approach to obtain the optimal density function derived from a

series of statistical sample points in terms of density approximates.

These are then used to calculate an approximation to the quantum

force in the hydrodynamic description. We also show how this

approach can be extended to finite temperature and use this to

examine the thermodynamic properties of rare-gas clusters with up

to 100 atoms.