The $GW$ approximation for the electronic self-energy is an important tool for the quantitative prediction of excited states in solids, but its mathematical exploration is hampered by the fact that it must, in general, be evaluated numerically even for very simple systems. In this paper I describe a nontrivial model consisting of two electrons on the surface of a sphere, interacting with the normal long-range Coulomb potential, and show that the $GW$ self-energy, in the absence of self-consistency, can in fact be derived completely analytically in this case. The resulting expression is subsequently used to analyze the convergence of the energy gap between the highest occupied and the lowest unoccupied quasiparticle orbital with respect to the total number of states included in the spectral summations. The asymptotic formula for the truncation error obtained in this way, whose dominant contribution is proportional to the cutoff energy to the power $\ensuremath{-}3/2$, may be adapted to extrapolate energy gaps in other systems.
The GW approximation for the electronic self-energy is an important tool for the quantitative prediction of excited states in solids, but its mathematical exploration is hampered by the fact that it must, in general, be evaluated numerically even for very simple systems. In this paper I describe a nontrivial model consisting of two electrons on the surface of a sphere, interacting with the normal long-range Coulomb potential, and show that the GW self-energy, in the absence of self-consistency, can in fact be derived completely analytically in this case. The resulting expression is subsequently used to analyze the convergence of the energy gap between the highest occupied and the lowest unoccupied quasiparticle orbital with respect to the total number of states included in the spectral summations. The asymptotic formula for the truncation error obtained in this way, whose dominant contribution is proportional to the cutoff energy to the power \ensuremath−3/2, may be adapted to extrapolate energy gaps in other systems.
We introduce a scheme through which the ground-state electronic density n and total energy Ev [n] of inhomogeneous interacting systems can be determined in a self-consistent (SC) way. It is based on a SC perturbation expansion for the single-particle Green function G. Our employed expansion is argued to be valid under all conditions provided that the ground-state charge density of the interacting system is pure-state non-interacting v representable. The formalism discussed in this paper has been applied to a quasi-one-dimensional periodic system. It has even been possible to carry out SC calculations with the dynamically screened exchange diagram (the so-called GW diagram, where W is the dynamically screened electron-electron interaction function) for the self-energy operator Σ. A coherent mode of interpretation of a number of our results entails that the overwhelming success of the GW framework in relatively accurately reproducing the experimental energy gaps of a number of semiconductors and insulators may be a direct consequence of non-self-consistency effects; whereas a non-self-consistent calculation in our tests increases the value of the local-density approximation (LDA) gap in the range of 40–65% of the ‘experimental’ gaps, self-consistency effects reduce this range to 14–17%. The same line of argument leads us to conclude that, in our model, 26–35% of the LDA error in the gap energies is due to the absence of a well known discontinuity in the LDA exchange-correlation potential, and the remaining part is due to the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues not being identifiable with one-particle excitation energies. A natural conclusion that may be drawn from these observations is that a correct description of excitation energies (e.g. of the gap energy) cannot be achieved without including, at least approximately, the vertex part of Σ, which is entirely absent in the GW scheme.
The electron self-energy for long-range Coulomb interactions plays a crucial role in understanding the many-body physics of interacting electron systems (e.g., in metals and semiconductors) and has been studied extensively for decades. In fact, it is among the oldest and the most-investigated many-body problems in physics. However, there is a lack of an analytical expression for the self-energy $Re{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}^{(R)}(\ensuremath{\varepsilon},T)$ when energy $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ and temperature kBT are arbitrary with respect to each other (while both being still small compared with the Fermi energy). We revisit this problem and calculate analytically the self-energy on the mass shell for a two-dimensional electron system with Coulomb interactions in the high density limit ${r}_{s}\ensuremath{\ll}1$, for temperature ${r}_{s}^{3/2}\ensuremath{\ll}{k}_{\mathsf{B}}T/{E}_{\mathsf{F}}\ensuremath{\ll}{r}_{s}$ and energy ${r}_{s}^{3/2}\ensuremath{\ll}|\ensuremath{\varepsilon}|/{E}_{\mathsf{F}}\ensuremath{\ll}{r}_{s}$. We provide the exact high-density analytical expressions for the real and imaginary parts of the electron self-energy with arbitrary value of $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}/{k}_{\mathsf{B}}T$, to the leading order in the dimensionless Coulomb coupling constant rs, and to several higher than leading orders in kBT/rsEF and $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}/{r}_{s}{E}_{\mathsf{F}}$. We also obtain the asymptotic behavior of the self-energy in the regimes $|\ensuremath{\varepsilon}|\ensuremath{\ll}{k}_{\mathsf{B}}T$ and $|\ensuremath{\varepsilon}|\ensuremath{\gg}{k}_{\mathsf{B}}T$. The higher-order terms have subtle and highly nontrivial compound logarithmic contributions from both $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ and T, explaining why they have never before been calculated in spite of the importance of the subject matter.
In this lecture we present many-body perturbation theory as a method to determine quasiparticle excitations in solids, especially electronic band structures, accurately from first principles.The main ingredient is the electronic self-energy that, in principle, contains all many-body exchange and correlation effects beyond the Hartree potential.As its exact mathematical expression is unknown, approximations must be used in practical calculations.The approximation is obtained using a systematic algebraic approach on the basis of Green function techniques.It constitutes an expansion of the self-energy up to linear order in the screened Coulomb potential, which describes the interaction between the quasiparticles and includes dynamic screening through the creation of exchange-correlation holes around the bare particles.The implementation of the approximation relies on a perturbative treatment starting from density functional theory.Besides a detailed mathematical discussion we focus on the underlying physical concepts and show some illustrative applications.
Besides the proof of a modified Luttinger–Ward–Klein variational principle and a related self-consistency idea, there is not much new in principle in this paper. L. Hedin, Phys. Rev . 139, A796–823 (1965) Summary In this chapter a set of equations is formulated that determine the self-energy and the one-body Green's function in terms of the screened Coulomb interaction between classical charges. The equations contain a correction to the classical picture in terms of a vertex function. The physical meaning of the various contributions is discussed. The simplest approximation for the vertex yields the random phase approximation for the polarizability and the GW approximation for the self-energy. Various aspects of the GWA are analyzed, with a focus on the physics that is added beyond Hartree– Fock. A brief summary of model cases illustrates the domain of validity and the limits of the GWA. In this chapter we elaborate in more detail on the question of how to calculate the onebody Green's function from a Dyson equation with a self-energy kernel. In the previous chapter a scheme was introduced to design approximations to the self-energy. However, the question of where to stop, which pieces of physics to include and which to neglect, is not yet settled. Of course, there is no unique answer, besides the exact solution, but different strategies can be more or less advantageous in practice. In a system with a few electrons, for example, different aspects will be important than in a system with many electrons. Here we are mostly interested in solids, or more generally in extended systems. In such systems, screening plays an essential role: the interaction between two charges is strongly modified, in general reduced, by the rearrangement of all the other charges. It is therefore most convenient to reformulate the equations such that screening appears explicitly. Some steps in this direction can be found in earlier chapters, in particular in Sec. 8.3, the formulation of the Ψ [ G , W ]-functional of the screened interaction W instead of the Ф[ G , v c ]-functional of the bare v c . In Sec. 10.5 the screened interaction approximation for the self-energy is derived, with the self-energy as a product of the one-body Green's function and the screened interaction W .
Many observables such as the density, total energy, or electric current, can be expressed explicitly in terms of the one‐body Green's function, which describes electron addition or removal to or from a system. An efficient way to determine such a Green's function is to introduce a self‐energy, which is a nonlocal and dynamic effective potential that influences the propagation of particles in an interacting system. The state‐of‐the art approximation for the self‐energy is the GW approximation, where the system to (or from) which the electron is added (or removed) is described as a polarizable, screening, medium. This is expressed by the name of the approximation: ‘GW’ stands for the one‐body Green's function G and for W , the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction. The GW approximation is very popular for the calculation of band structures in solids, and increasingly used also to describe nanostructures, clusters, and molecules. As compared to static mean‐field approximations for the effective potential, the dynamical screening of the Coulomb interaction in GW leads to a renormalization of energies, to broadening and/or to the observation of additional excitations. An analysis of the approximations that lead to the GW self‐energy, and of the underlying picture, explains the successes and the limitations of the approach. This article is categorized under: Electronic Structure Theory > Density Functional Theory Electronic Structure Theory > Ab Initio Electronic Structure Methods Theoretical and Physical Chemistry > Spectroscopy Structure and Mechanism > Computational Materials Science
We present self-consistent GW calculations for a quasi-one-dimensional model semiconductor, using multipole representations for W, the screened interaction, and G, the electron Green function. In the case of G, we distinguish between the quasiparticle contribution and the so-called incoherent contribution. We consider various strengths of the external potential. For two different starting points of the self-consistency cycle, local-density approximation and Hartree-Fock, the band gaps converge to the same values. The self-consistent GW band gaps differ very little from the Hartree-Fock band gaps. There is considerable disagreement with quantum Monte Carlo calculations for the same model, indicating the importance of vertex corrections.