I review the way the many-body Green functions are used to renormalize the perturbation theory of correlated fermions. The Green functions are introduced to implement systematically dynamical corrections to the static mean-field theory. The renormalizations enter the perturbation theory via self-consistent evaluations of one-particle and two-particle Green functions. The one-particle self-consistency is discussed within the Baym-Kadanoff construction. We point to an inherent dichotomy of the Baym-Kadanoff approach in the relation between one and two-particle Green functions. They are the Schwinger-Dyson equation, directly derived from the generating Luttinger-Ward functional, and the Ward identity. The latter imposes a severe restriction on the two-particle irreducible vertex and is not guaranteed in the Baym-Kadanoff approach. No approximate theory is capable to obey both relations. I further discuss the two-particle approach with two-particle renormalizations that offers a way to reconcile the Schwinger-Dyson equation and the Ward identity. The two-particle irreducible vertex from the critical Bethe-Salpeter equation becomes a generating functional in the two-particle renormalization of the perturbation theory. The irreducible vertex is used in the Ward identity to determine the order parameter beyond the critical point and in the Bethe-Salpeter equation representing the vertex of the Schwinger-Dyson equation to determine the spectral self-energy in such a way that the thermodynamic critical behavior from both equations is qualitatively the same. Finally, I discuss a static mean-field-like approximation with a renormalized effective interaction determined self-consistently that leads to a qualitatively correct description of strong electron correlations in impurity and lattice models.
I review the way the many-body Green functions are used to renormalize the perturbation theory of correlated fermions. The Green functions are introduced to implement systematically dynamical corrections to the static mean-field theory. The renormalizations enter the perturbation theory via self-consistent evaluations of one-particle and two-particle Green functions. The one-particle self-consistency is discussed within the Baym-Kadanoff construction. We point to an inherent dichotomy of the Baym-Kadanoff approach in the relation between one and two-particle Green functions. They are the Schwinger-Dyson equation, directly derived from the generating Luttinger-Ward functional, and the Ward identity. The latter imposes a severe restriction on the two-particle irreducible vertex and is not guaranteed in the Baym-Kadanoff approach. No approximate theory is capable to obey both relations. I further discuss the two-particle approach with two-particle renormalizations that offers a way to reconcile the Schwinger-Dyson equation and the Ward identity. The two-particle irreducible vertex from the critical Bethe-Salpeter equation becomes a generating functional in the two-particle renormalization of the perturbation theory. The irreducible vertex is used in the Ward identity to determine the order parameter beyond the critical point and in the Bethe-Salpeter equation representing the vertex of the Schwinger-Dyson equation to determine the spectral self-energy in such a way that the thermodynamic critical behavior from both equations is qualitatively the same. Finally, I discuss a static mean-field-like approximation with a renormalized effective interaction determined self-consistently that leads to a qualitatively correct description of strong electron correlations in impurity and lattice models.
A review of electronic dynamics of single-impurity and many-impurity Anderson models is contained in this report. Those models are used widely for many of the applications in diverse fields of interest, such as surface physics, theory of chemisorption and adsorbate reactions on metal surfaces, physics of intermediate valence systems, theory of heavy fermions, physics of quantum dots and other nanostructures. While standard treatments are generally based on perturbation methods, our approach is based on the non-perturbative technique for the thermodynamic Green functions. The method of the irreducible Green functions is used as the basic tool. This irreducible Green functions method allows one to describe the quasiparticle spectra with damping of the strongly correlated electron systems in a very general and natural way and to construct the relevant dynamical solution in a self-consistent way on the level of Dyson equation without decoupling the chain of the equations of motion for the Green functions. The subject matter includes the improved interpolating solution of the Anderson model. It was shown that an interpolating approximation, which simultaneously reproduces the weak-coupling limit up to second order in the interaction strength U and the strong-coupling limit up to second order in the hybridization V (and thus also fulfils the atomic limit) can be formulated self-consistently. This approach offers a new way for the systematic construction of approximate interpolation dynamical solutions of strongly correlated electron systems.
We present a construction of a mean-field theory for thermodynamic and spectral properties of correlated electrons reliable in the strong-coupling limit. We introduce an effective interaction determined self-consistently from the reduced parquet equations. It is a static local approximation of the two-particle irreducible vertex, the kernel of a potentially singular Bethe-Salpeter equation. The effective interaction enters the Ward identity from which a thermodynamic self-energy, renormalizing the one-electron propagators, is determined. The dynamical Schwinger-Dyson equation with the thermodynamic propagators is then used to calculate the spectral properties. The thermodynamic and spectral properties of correlated electrons are in this way determined on the same footing and in a consistent manner. Such a mean-field approximation is analytically controllable and free of unphysical behavior and spurious phase transitions. We apply the construction to the asymmetric Anderson impurity and the Hubbard models in the strong-coupling regime.
A two-particle self-consistency is rarely part of mean-field theories. It is, however, essential for avoiding spurious critical transitions and unphysical behavior. We present a general scheme for constructing analytically controllable approximations with self-consistent equations for the two-particle vertices based on the parquet equations. We explain in detail how to reduce the full set of parquet equations so as not to miss quantum criticality in strong coupling. We further introduce a decoupling of convolutions of the dynamical variables in the Bethe-Salpeter equations to make them analytically solvable. We connect the self-energy with the two-particle vertices to satisfy the Ward identity and the Schwinger-Dyson equation and discuss the role of the one-particle self-consistency in making the approximations reliable in the whole spectrum of the input parameters. Finally, we demonstrate the general construction on the simplest static approximation that we apply to the Kondo behavior of the single-impurity Anderson model.
Abstract Chapter 09 Nonequilibrium Green’s functions (NEGF), including coupled-correlated (C) single- and multi-particle Green’s functions, are defined as averages weighted with the time-development operator U(t0+τ,t0). Linear conductivity is exhibited as a two-particle equilibrium Green’s function (Kubo-type formulation). Admitting particle sources (S:η,η+) and non-conservation of number, the non-equilibrium multi-particle Green’s functions are constructed with numbers of creation and annihilation operators that may differ, and they may be derived as variational derivatives with respect to sources η,η+ of a generating functional eW=TrU(t0+τ,t0)CS/TrU(t0+τ,t0)C. (In the non-interacting case this yields the n-particle Green’s function as a permanent/determinant of single-particle Green’s functions.) These variational relations yield a symmetric set of multi-particle Green’s function equations. Cumulants and the Linked Cluster Theorem are discussed and the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) is derived variationally. Schwinger’s variational differential formulation of perturbation theories for the Green’s function, self-energy, vertex operator, and also shielded potential perturbation theory, are reviewed. The Langreth Algebra arises from analytic continuation of integration of products of Green’s functions in imaginary time to the real-time axis with time-ordering along the integration contour in the complex time plane. An account of the Generalized Kadanoff-Baym Ansatz is presented.
Perturbation theory using self-consistent Green's functions is one of the most widely used approaches to study many-body effects in condensed matter. On the basis of general considerations and by performing analytical calculations for the specific example of the Hubbard atom, we discuss some key features of this approach. We show that when the domain of the functionals that are used to realize the map between the noninteracting and the interacting Green's functions is properly defined, there exists a class of self-energy functionals for which the self-consistent Dyson equation has only one solution, which is the physical one. We also show that manipulation of the perturbative expansion of the interacting Green's function may lead to a wrong self-energy as a functional of the interacting Green's function, at least for some regions of the parameter space. These findings confirm and explain numerical results of Kozik et al. for the widely used skeleton series of Luttinger and Ward [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 156402 (2015)]. Our study shows that it is important to distinguish between the maps between sets of functions and the functionals that realize those maps. We demonstrate that the self-consistent Green's functions approach itself is not problematic, whereas the functionals that are widely used may have a limited range of validity.
Within many-body perturbation theory, Hedin's formalism offers a systematic way to iteratively compute the self-energy $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}$ of any dynamically correlated interacting system, provided one can evaluate the interaction vertex $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$ exactly. This is, however, impossible, in general, for it involves the functional derivative of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}$ with respect to the Green's function. Here, we analyze the structure of this derivative, splitting it into four contributions and outlining the type of quasiparticle interactions that each of them generate. Moreover, we show how, in the implementation of self-consistency, the action of these contributions can be classified into two: A quantitative renormalization of previously included interaction terms and the inclusion of qualitatively distinct interaction terms through successive functional derivatives of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$ itself. Implementing this latter type of self-consistency can extend the validity of perturbative approximations based on Hedin's equations toward the high interaction limit, as we show in the example of the Hubbard dimer. Our analysis also provides a unifying perspective on the perturbation theory landscape, showing how the T-matrix approach is completely contained in Hedin's formalism.