  Earlier tests show that the Tao-Perdew-Staroverov-Scuseria (TPSS)
nonempirical meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA) for the
exchange-correlation energy yields more accurate surface energies than the
local spin density (LSD) approximation for spin-unpolarized jellium. In this
study, work functions and surface energies of a jellium metal in the presence
of ``internal'' and external magnetic fields are calculated with LSD,
Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) GGA, and TPSS meta-GGA and its predecessor, the
nearly nonempirical Perdew-Kurth-Zupan-Blaha (PKZB) meta-GGA, using
self-consistent LSD orbitals and densities. The results show that: (i) For
normal bulk densities, the surface correlation energy is the same in TPSS as in
PBE, as it should be since TPSS strives to represent a self-correlation
correction to PBE; (ii) Normal surface density profiles can be scaled uniformly
to the low-density or strong-interaction limit, and TPSS provides an estimate
for that limit that is consistent with (but probably more accurate than) other
estimates; (iii) For both normal and low densities, TPSS provides the same
description of surface magnetism as PBE, suggesting that these approximations
may be generally equivalent for magnetism. The energies of jellium spheres with
up to 106 electrons are calculated using density functionals and compared to
those obtained with Diffusion Quantum Monte Carlo data, including our estimate
for the fixed-node correction. Finally we calculate the linear response of bulk
jellium using these density functionals, and find that not only LSD but also
PBE GGA and TPSS meta-GGA yield a linear-response in good agreement with that
of the Quantum Monte Carlo method, for wavevectors of the perturbing external
potential up to twice the Fermi wavevector.
