Towards Density Functional Calculations from Nuclear Forces

We propose a method for microscopic calculations of nuclear groundstate properties in the framework of density functional theory (DFT). We discuss how the density functional is equivalent to the effective action for the density, thereby establishing a constructive framework for DFT calculations from nuclear forces. The presented approach starts from non-interacting nucleons in a background potential (a simple approximation for the mean field). The nuclear forces are then gradually turned on, while the background potential is removed. The evolution equation yields the ground-state energy and density of a system of interacting nucleons, including exchange-correlations beyond the RPA approximation. The method can start from non-local low momentum (Vlow k) or chiral interactions.