Interaction between closed-shell systems and metal surfaces

The relationship between the van der Waals description of the binding of rare-gas atoms to metal surfaces and the description using a local approximation for exchange-correlation effects is discussed. The local-density treatment is shown to provide a good account of recent data on atomic binding energy, dipole moment, and core-level binding-energy shift. Charge rearrangement maps are used to analyze bond formation and to discuss the validity of the image picture of core-hole screening. © 1981 The American Physical Society.