Linear response time-dependent density functional theory without unoccupied states: The Kohn-Sham-Sternheimer scheme revisited.

The Sternheimer approach to time-dependent density functional theory in the linear response regime is attractive because of its computational efficiency. The latter results from avoiding the explicit calculation of unoccupied orbitals and from the basic structure of the Sternheimer equations, which naturally lend themselves to far-reaching parallelization. In this article, we take a fresh look at the frequency-dependent Sternheimer equations. We first give a complete, self-contained derivation of the equations that complements previous derivations. We then discuss several aspects of an efficient numerical realization. As a worked example, we compute the photoabsorption spectra of small hydrogenated silicon clusters and confirm that for these the quality of the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues is more important than the effects of the exchange-correlation kernel. Finally, we demonstrate how triplet excitations can readily be computed from the Sternheimer approach.