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arXiv:2109.07972 · Physical Review Research

Unified Green's function approach for spectral and thermodynamic properties from algorithmic inversion of dynamical potentials

Tommaso Chiarotti, Nicola Marzari, Andrea Ferretti

Published Mar 29, 2022• 11 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Dynamical potentials appear in many advanced electronic-structure methods, including self-energies from many-body perturbation theory, dynamical mean-field theory, electronic-transport formulations, and many embedding approaches. Here, we propose a novel treatment for the frequency dependence, introducing an algorithmic inversion method that can be applied to dynamical potentials expanded as sum over poles. This approach allows for an exact solution of Dyson-like equations at all frequencies via a mapping to a matrix diagonalization, and provides simultaneously frequency-dependent (spectral) and frequency-integrated (thermodynamic) properties of the Dyson-inverted propagators. The transformation to a sum over poles is performed introducing $n\mathrm{th}$ order generalized Lorentzians as an improved basis set to represent the spectral function of a propagator. Numerical results for the homogeneous electron gas at the ${G}_{0}{W}_{0}$ level are provided to argue for the accuracy and efficiency of such unified approach.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.4.013242

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Dynamical potentials appear in many advanced electronic-structure methods, including self-energies from many-body perturbation theory, dynamical mean-field theory, electronic-transport formulations, and many embedding approaches. Here, we propose a novel treatment for the frequency dependence, introducing an algorithmic inversion method that can be applied to dynamical potentials expanded as sum over poles. This approach allows for an exact solution of Dyson-like equations at all frequencies via a mapping to a matrix diagonalization, and provides simultaneously frequency-dependent (spectral) and frequency-integrated (thermodynamic) properties of the Dyson-inverted propagators. The transformation to a sum over poles is performed introducing nthn\mathrm{th}nth order generalized Lorentzians as an improved basis set to represent the spectral function of a propagator. Numerical results for the homogeneous electron gas at the G0W0{G}_{0}{W}_{0}G0​W0​ level are provided to argue for the accuracy and efficiency of such unified approach.
This thesis develops a theoretical framework for quantum embedding based on compact sum-over-poles (SOP) representations of Green's functions, with a particular focus on dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) formulated close to the real-frequency axis. The work starts from the algorithmic inversion method (AIM-SOP) and generalizes it to many-body lattice systems, proving that any interacting fragment embedded in an arbitrary bath can be represented by an auxiliary Hamiltonian with a finite set of non-interacting bath sites. The author embeds this formalism into a DMFT self-consistency loop formulated on complex contours close to the real axis, complemented by a SOP-based fitting strategy and exact-diagonalization (ED) impurity solvers, constructing a DMFT scheme that does not rely on approximate analytic continuation techniques. In particular, the framework enables us to work on compact (SOP) representations of Green's functions and self-energies alone, and leads to a frequency-independent formulation of DMFT, grounded in effective free energy (Baym-Kadanoff and Klein) functionals. Applications to a 100010001000-site one-dimensional Hubbard ring demonstrate that compact SOP forms reproduce state-of-the-art ED-DMFT results on the Matsubara frequencies and retain key spectral features as the contour approaches the real axis, while also revealing convergence trends and multiple-solution behavior near challenging correlation regimes. Beyond its numerical validation, this approach paves the way for novel variational implementations of DMFT and realistic applications to materials, harnessing its promising ability to resolve fine spectral features.
We present results for many-body perturbation theory for the one-body Green's function at finite temperatures using the Matsubara formalism. Our method relies on the accurate representation of the single-particle states in standard Gaussian basis sets, allowing to efficiently compute, among other observables, quasiparticle energies and Dyson orbitals of atoms and molecules. In particular, we challenge the second-order treatment of the Coulomb interaction by benchmarking its accuracy for a well-established test set of small molecules, which includes also systems where the usual Hartree-Fock treatment encounters difficulties. We discuss different schemes how to extract quasiparticle properties and assess their range of applicability. With an accurate solution and compact representation, our method is an ideal starting point to study electron dynamics in time-resolved experiments by the propagation of the Kadanoff-Baym equations.
In Green's function theory, the total energy of an interacting many-electron system can be expressed in a variational form using the Klein or Luttinger-Ward functionals. Green's function theory also naturally addresses the case where the interacting system is embedded into a bath. The latter can then act as a dynamical (i.e., frequency-dependent) potential, providing a more general framework than that of conventional static external potentials. Notably, the Klein functional includes a term of the form Tr ω ln { G 0 − 1 G } , where Tr ω is the integration in frequency of the trace operator. Here, we show that using a sum-over-poles representation for the Green's functions and the algorithmic-inversion method one can obtain, in full generality, an explicit analytical expression for Tr ω ln { G 0 − 1 G } . Further, this allows us (1) to recover an explicit expression for the random phase approximation correlation energy in the framework of the optimized effective potential and (2) to derive a variational expression for the Klein functional valid in the presence of an embedding bath. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Quantum many-body systems in thermal equilibrium can be described by the imaginary time Green’s function formalism. However, the treatment of large molecular or solid ab initio problems with a fully realistic Hamiltonian in large basis sets is hampered by the storage of the Green’s function and the precision of the solution of the Dyson equation. We present a Legendre-spectral algorithm for solving the Dyson equation that addresses both of these issues. By formulating the algorithm in Legendre coefficient space, our method inherits the known faster-than-exponential convergence of the Green’s function’s Legendre series expansion. In this basis, the fast recursive method for Legendre polynomial convolution enables us to develop a Dyson equation solver with quadratic scaling. We present benchmarks of the algorithm by computing the dissociation energy of the helium dimer He2 within dressed second-order perturbation theory. For this system, the application of the Legendre spectral algorithm allows us to achieve an energy accuracy of 10−9Eh with only a few hundred expansion coefficients.
Using a general-order ab initio many-body Green's function method, we numerically illustrate several pathological behaviors of the Feynman-Dyson diagrammatic perturbation expansion of one-particle many-body Green's functions as electron Feynman propagators. (i) The perturbation expansion of the frequency-dependent self-energy is not convergent at the exact self-energy in many frequency domains. (ii) An odd-perturbation-order self-energy has a qualitatively wrong shape and, as a result, many roots of the corresponding Dyson equation are nonphysical in that the poles may be complex or residues can exceed unity or be negative. (iii) A higher even-order self-energy consists of vertical lines at many frequencies, predicting numerous phantom poles with zero residues. (iv) Infinite partial resummations of diagrams by vertex or edge renormalization tend to exacerbate these pathologies. (v) The nonconvergence is caused by the nonanalyticity of the rational-function form of the exact Green's function at many frequencies, where the radius of convergence of its Taylor expansion is zero. This is consistent with the fact that (vi) Pad\'e approximants (power-series expansions of a rational function) can largely restore the correct shape and poles of the Green's function. Nevertheless, not only does the nonconvergence render higher-order Feynman-Dyson diagrammatic perturbation theory useless for many lower-lying ionization or higher-lying electron-attachment states but it also calls into question the validity of its combined use with the Ans\"atze requiring the knowledge of all poles and residues. Such Ans\"atze include the Galitskii-Migdal identity, the self-consistent Green's function methods, and some models of the algebraic diagrammatic construction.
Abstract Green-function techniques are among the most versatile tools for investigating quantum many-body systems at finite temperature. Yet, standard textbook treatments often fragment the formalism—separating bosons and fermions, systems with massless and massive particles, or restricting proofs to special Hamiltonians—thereby obscuring the structural unity of the theory. This work develops a general, Hamiltonian-independent framework for both real- and imaginary-time Green-functions, valid for any combination of bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom, including mixed systems such as interacting electron–phonon models. The key conceptual advance is the nature index η , which complements the conventional statistical sign ζ . While ζ encodes particle statistics, η distinguishes canonical quantization of systems with massless particles ( η = 0) from second quantization of systems with massive particles ( η = 1). This classification removes ambiguities in chemical-potential terms and unifies the treatment of photons, phonons, electrons, and their mixtures under a single notation. From this basis, we formulate generalized ensemble constructions, generalized Lehmann-representations, and a fluctuation-dissipation theorem valid for arbitrary Hamiltonians. Several results—such as the monotonicity of particle number in the chemical potential, an explicit formula for the quadratic contribution to the internal energy from the retarded Green-function, and the Hartree-contribution to the self-energy in electron–phonon systems—are either absent from, or only sparsely mentioned in, existing literature. We further introduce Green’s Chart, a visual and algebraic map that systematically connects all Green-function types through analytic continuation, Fourier-transforms, and Wick-rotations, enabling all to be generated from the Matsubara Green-function. Applications to both non-interacting and interacting models demonstrate the framework’s ability to compute densities of states, thermodynamic potentials, and spectral functions with a consistent formalism. The results provide a complete and reproducible toolkit for equilibrium many-body theory, consolidating scattered results into a unified structure suitable for both pedagogical and computational purposes.