The uniform electron gas

Abstract

The uniform electron gas or UEG (also known as jellium) is one of the most fundamental models in condensed-matter physics and the cornerstone of the most popular approximation --- the local-density approximation --- within density-functional theory. In this article, we provide a detailed review on the energetics of the UEG at high, intermediate and low densities, and in one, two and three dimensions. We also report the best quantum Monte Carlo and symmetry-broken Hartree-Fock calculations available in the literature for the UEG and discuss the phase diagrams of jellium.