Padé approximation for the polynomial representation of the correlation energy density functional

Polynomials in the one-third power of the density were recently proposed to represent approximately the correlation energy density functional [S. Liu and R.G. Parr, Phys. Rev. A 53 (1996) 2211]. Studied in the present work is a Padé-approximant in that same variable which overcomes weaknesses in the polynomial form. Numerical results for atoms and molecules show that Padé forms fairly reproduce the experimental values, and are comparable in accuracy with other commonly used local functionals for the correlation energy.