Investigating the magnetism of Ni from a momentum space perspective

For more than three decades, clear discrepancies have existed between spin densities in momentum space revealed by Magnetic Compton scattering experiments and theoretical calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). Here by making a wide comparison between different theoretical methods, including DFT, DFT combined with dynamical mean field theory, and Hedin’s $GW$ approximation, we discover how the magnetic Compton profiles of Ni can be predicted remarkably well. We find that the essential ingredients missing in DFT are (i) local spin fluctuations and (ii) a non-local treatment of electron correlations.