Electron correlations in a C₂₀ fullerene cluster: A lattice density-functional study of the Hubbard model

The ground-state properties of C$_{20}$ fullerene clusters are determined in the framework of the Hubbard model by using lattice density-functional theory (LDFT) and scaling approximations to the interaction-energy functional. Results are given for the ground-state energy, kinetic and Coulomb energies, local magnetic moments, and charge-excitation gap, as a function of the Coulomb repulsion $U/t$ and for electron or hole doping $\delta$ close half-band filling ($|\delta| \le 1$). The role of electron correlations is analyzed by comparing the LDFT results with fully unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) calculations which take into account possible noncollinear arrangements of the local spin-polarizations. The consequences of the spin-density-wave symmetry breaking, often found in UHF, and the implications of this study for more complex fullerene structures are discussed.