Local kinetic-energy density of the Airy gas -: art. no. 052511

The Airy gas model is used to derive an expression for the local kinetic energy in the linear potential approximation. The expression contains an explicit Laplacian term 2/5((h) over bar(2)/2m)del(mu)(2)(r) that, according to jellium surface calculations, must be a universal feature of any accurate local description. Applied to the noble gases the expression reduces the errors by a factor of 50 over previous results obtained by the linear potential approximation.