The density-functional theory of quantum droplets

In quantum droplets, the mean-field energy is comparable to the Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) energy. In the Bogoliubov theory, the LHY energy of the quantum droplet has an imaginary part, but it is neglected in most studies for practical purposes. So far, most theoretical studies of quantum droplets have been based on the extended Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation obtained by including the contribution of the LHY energy to the chemical potential. In this article, we present the density-functional theory of quantum droplets. In our approach, the quantum fluctuations in quantum droplets, as described by an effective action, generate the correlation energy which is real and can be determined self-consistently. Using the density-functional theory, we calculate the energy, the quantum depletion fraction, and the excitations of the droplet. Our results for the ground-state energy and the quantum depletion fraction are consistent with the Monte Carlo results. The implications of our theory are discussed.