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arXiv:1504.01499 · Frontiers in nuclear and particle physics

Large amplitude collective dynamic beyond the independent particle/quasiparticle picture

Denis Lacroix A

Published Jun 27, 2019• 5 citations
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Abstract

In the present note, a summary of selected aspects of timedependent mean-field theory is first recalled. This approach is optimized to describe one-body degrees of freedom. A special focus is made on how this microscopic theory can be reduced to a macroscopic dynamic for a selected set of collective variables. Important physical phenomena like adiabaticity/diabaticity, one-body dissipation or memory effect are discussed. Special aspects related to the use of a time-dependent density functional instead of a time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory based on a bare hamiltonian are underlined. The absence of proper description of complex internal correlations however strongly impacts the predictive power of mean-field. A brief overview of theories going beyond the independent particles/quasi-particles theory is given. Then, a special attention is paid for finite fermionic systems at low internal excitation. In that case, quantum fluctuations in collective space that are poorly treated at the meanfield level, are important. Several approaches going beyond mean-field, that are anticipated to improve the description of quantum fluctuations, are discussed: the Balian-V´en´eroni variational principle, the Time-Dependent Random Phase Approximation and the recently proposed Stochastic Mean-Field theory. Relations between these theories are underlined as well as their advantages and shortcomings.

DOI
10.2174/9781681087641119020010

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In the present note, a summary of selected aspects of timedependent mean-field theory is first recalled. This approach is optimized to describe one-body degrees of freedom. A special focus is made on how this microscopic theory can be reduced to a macroscopic dynamic for a selected set of collective variables. Important physical phenomena like adiabaticity/diabaticity, one-body dissipation or memory effect are discussed. Special aspects related to the use of a time-dependent density functional instead of a time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory based on a bare hamiltonian are underlined. The absence of proper description of complex internal correlations however strongly impacts the predictive power of mean-field. A brief overview of theories going beyond the independent particles/quasi-particles theory is given. Then, a special attention is paid for finite fermionic systems at low internal excitation. In that case, quantum fluctuations in collective space that are poorly treated at the meanfield level, are important. Several approaches going beyond mean-field, that are anticipated to improve the description of quantum fluctuations, are discussed: the Balian-V´en´eroni variational principle, the Time-Dependent Random Phase Approximation and the recently proposed Stochastic Mean-Field theory. Relations between these theories are underlined as well as their advantages and shortcomings.
The time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) and density functional theory (DFT) are among the most useful approaches within mean-field theories for studying static and dynamic properties of complex many-body systems in different branches of physics. Despite the fact that they provide a good approximation for the average properties of one-body degrees of freedoms, they are known to fail to include quantal fluctuations of collective observables and they do not provide sufficient dissipation of collective motion. In order to incorporate these missing effects the stochastic mean-field (SMF) approach was proposed (Ayik 2008). In the SMF approach a set of stochastic initial one-body densities are evolved. Each stochastic one-body density matrix consists of a set of stochastic Gaussian random numbers that satisfy the first and second moments of collective one-body observables. Recent works indicate that the SMF approach provides a good description of the dynamics of the nuclear systems (Yilmaz et al. 2018; Ayik et al. 2019). In this work, the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model is simulated with the SMF approach by using different distributions such as Gaussian, uniform, bimodal and two-point distributions. The dissipative dynamics are discussed and the predictive power of the SMF approach with different probability distributions are compared with each other and the exact dynamics. As a result it is shown that by considering different distributions, the predictive power of the SMF approach can be improved.
We formulate a theory for the transfer of energy from collective degrees of freedom to internal degrees of freedom when the former belong to the adiabatic large-amplitude regime. The framework is that of an extended mean-field theory including dissipation, with the following salient features: (i) The Born-Oppenheimer approximation is extended to finite excitation energy by the introduction of the concept of thermal state, that is pure with respect to collective coordinates and a (square root of a)a)a) density matrix with respect to internal coordinates. (ii) By assuming that these states form an approximate complete set for application of the Kerman-Klein method, the self-consistent theory of large amplitude collective motion is extended to finite excitation energy. (iii) The mean-field limit is taken, and further study is carried out in the basis of natural orbitals that diagonalizes the one-particle density matrix. In the approximation maintained uniformly in this work, the equations of motion for the orbitals are shown to be of Hamiltonian form; to these are conjoined the master equations for the time rate of change of the occupation numbers. The latter are studied in two extreme limits. In the collisionless limit, dissipation still arises from the response of the mean field to the collective motion (one-body friction). At the opposite extreme, collisions are assumed to be so effective as to force the system always to be in a state of local (constrained) equilibrium. (iv) We review a procedure by which the noncollective variables in the Hamiltonian may be eliminated, leading to equations of motion for the collective variables with dissipative terms that in general depend on the history of the system. The limit of instantaneous friction can be justified in an adiabatic approximation. (v) A decoupling procedure is developed for deriving the form of these equations of motion from the mean-field theory, with the ultimate aim of obtaining the macroscopic parameters that appear in the classical equations of motion for the collective variables. This procedure generalizes that developed in extensive previous work on large amplitude collective motion at zero temperature. (vi) Associating the dissipative equations of motion for the collective variables with one of the assumptions concerning the rates of change of the occupation numbers provides a description of the relaxation of a system initially perturbed from a state of dynamic equilibrium.
Standard methods used for computing the dynamics of a quantum many-body system are the mean-field (MF) approximations such as the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) approach. Even though MF approaches are quite successful, they suffer some well-known shortcomings, one of which is insufficient dissipation of collective motion. The stochastic mean-field approach (SMF), where a set of MF trajectories with random initial conditions are considered, is a good candidate to include dissipative effects beyond mean field. In this approach, the one-body density matrix elements are treated initially as a set of stochastic Gaussian c numbers that are adjusted to reproduce first and second moments of collective one-body observables. It is shown that the predictive power of the SMF approach can be further improved by relaxing the Gaussian assumption for the initial probabilities. More precisely, using Gaussian or uniform distributions for the matrix elements generally leads to overdamping for long times, whereas distributions with smaller kurtosis lead to much better reproduction of the long time evolution.
In the stochastic mean-field approach, an ensemble of initial conditions is considered to incorporate correlations beyond the mean-field. Then each starting point is propagated separately using the Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock equation of motion. This approach provides a rather simple tool to better describe fluctuations compared to the standard TDHF. Several illustrations are presented showing that this theory can be rather effective to treat the dynamics close to a quantum phase transition. Applications to fusion and transfer reactions demonstrate the great improvement in the description of mass dispersion.
Assuming that the effect of the residual interaction beyond the mean field is weak and has a short memory time, two approximate treatments of correlation in fermionic systems by means of the Markovian quantum jump are presented. A simplified scenario for the introduction of fluctuations beyond the mean field is presented first. In this theory, part of the quantum correlations between the residual interaction and the one-body density matrix are neglected and jumps occur between many-body densities formed of pairs of states $D=|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{a}\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\langle}{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{b}|/\ensuremath{\langle}{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{b}|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{a}\ensuremath{\rangle}$, where $|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{a}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ and $|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{b}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ are antisymmetrized products of single-particle states. The underlying stochastic mean-field theory is discussed and is applied to the monopole vibration of a spherical 40Ca^{40}\mathrm{Ca}40Ca nucleus under the influence of a statistical ensemble of two-body contact interactions. This framework is however too simplistic to account for both fluctuation and dissipation. In the second part of this work, an alternative quantum jump method is obtained without making the approximation on quantum correlations. By restricting to two-particle--two-hole residual interactions, the evolution of the one-body density matrix of a correlated system is transformed into a Lindblad equation. The associated dissipative dynamics can be simulated by quantum jumps between densities written as $D=|\ensuremath{\Phi}\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\langle}\ensuremath{\Phi}|$, where $|\ensuremath{\Phi}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ is a normalized Slater determinant. The associated stochastic Schr\"odinger equation for single-particle wave functions is given.
Collective excitations are one of the most common and interesting features of many-body systems. Of particular interest are those collective modes which can be interpreted in terms of vibrations. Nuclei show a large variety of such modes, both low-lying and high-lying. In particular the giant dipole resonance is due to the coherent motion of protons against neutrons. Its analogue in metal clusters is the dipole plasmon excitation, due to the oscillation of electrons against the positive ions. The Random Phase Approximation (RPA) is extensively used as a microscopic theory to study the basic properties of these collective excitations. In the derivation of RPA use is made of the Quasi Boson Approximation (QBA). It consists in replacing the expectation values in the correlated ground state with those in the uncorrelated (Hartree-Fock) one. Strictly related to QBA is the feature of RPA of predicting a harmonic spectrum. On the other hand, the existence of anharmonicities in the multiphonon spectra of nuclei and their relevance in various physical processes are well established. Overcoming QBA has represented the starting point of many attempts aiming at improving RPA. A recently developed approach in this line will be presented and discussed. A very nice property of RPA is to satisfy Energy Weighted Sum Rules (EWSR). However, some violations are present in several extensions of RPA. We will show how to cure this shortcoming.