  A simple and completely general representation of the exact
exchange-correlation functional of density-functional theory is derived from
the universal Lieb-Oxford bound, which holds for any Coulomb-interacting
system. This representation leads to an alternative point of view on popular
hybrid functionals, providing a rationale for why they work and how they can be
constructed. A similar representation of the exact correlation functional
allows to construct fully non-empirical hyper-generalized-gradient
approximations (HGGAs), radically departing from established paradigms of
functional construction. Numerical tests of these HGGAs for atomic and
molecular correlation energies and molecular atomization energies show that
even simple HGGAs match or outperform state-of-the-art correlation functionals
currently used in solid-state physics and quantum chemistry.
