[Wien] about ENE

[Stefaan Cottenier]

> Would you please tell me if we increase the lattice parameter the 
> total energy will be zero.I mean that it will be a free particle.

If you increase the lattice parameter to infinity, you will obtain the 
total energy of free atoms -- which is not zero at all (it is equal to 
the energy needed to bring all electrons of that atom to infinite 
distances of each other and of the nucleus, clearly you will need a 
nonzero energy to achieve that). The difference between this free atom 
energy and the energy of the ground state (solid) is the cohesive energy.

Stefaan


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