Various methods and approximation schemes are used to study many-electron interacting systems. Two important many-particle models, the Anderson model and the Hubbard model, and their electromagnetic properties have been investigated in many parameter regimes, and applied to physical systems. An Anderson single-impurity model Hamiltonian based calculation of the magnetic susceptibility is performed for YbN in the presence of crystal fields using an alteration of the Non-Crossing Approximation proposed by Zwicknagl et.al., incorporating parameters obtained from ab initio band structure calculations. It yields good agreement with experimental data. For the Anderson lattice model, a variational scheme which uses specific many-electron wavefunctions as basis is applied to both one- and two-dimensional systems represented by symmetric Anderson lattice Hamiltonians. Without much computational effort, the ground state energy is well approximated, especially in strong-coupling limit. Some electronic properties are examined using the variational ground state wavefunction. The one-dimensional Hubbard model has been solved exactly for small-size clusters by diagonalizing the Hamiltonian in the basis of many-electron Bloch states. The results for the energy spectrum and eigenfunctions of the ground state and low-lying excited states are presented. Also, mean field calculations of the two-dimensional single-band Hubbard model and Cu-O lattice model (three-band Hubbard model) are carried out for various physical quantities including the energy, occupation probability, staggered magnetization, momentum distribution Fermi surface and density of states, by using a projection operator formalism. To develop a systematic approach to solving many-electron problems, the many-particle partition function for the free electron gas system is explored using a cumulant expansion scheme. Starting from the ground state, the partition function can be approximated to any order in terms of excitation energy. Its application to interacting systems such as the Anderson model and the Hubbard model is briefly discussed.
The method of correlated basis functions provides a means of systematically exploiting our intuitive understanding of real physical systems. Here we seek especially to develop a formalism for describing systems of strongly interacting fermions, for example, nuclei and liquid
He3, using a complete set of correlated functions ${\ensuremath{\Psi}}_{\mathrm{m}}=\frac{F{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}{{({\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}, {F}^{2}{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}})}^{\frac{1}{2}}}$.
F is taken as a product of two-body factors, $\ensuremath{\Pi}{i<j}^{}[f({r}_{\mathrm{ij}})]$, the
f(rij) embodying at least the correlations arising from strong short-range repulsions; and ${{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$, a set of independent-particle-model functions which might serve as a basis in the absence of highly singular interactions. The matrix elements
Hmn,
Nmn of the Hamiltonian and identity operators with respect to the correlated basis ${{\ensuremath{\Psi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$ are evaluated by generalization of cluster-expansion techniques developed originally for the calculation of the partition function of a classical imperfect gas and adapted to the quantum-mechanical many-body problem by Iwamoto and Yamada. Contributions to our expansions for the
Hmn are classified according to order of magnitude in the quantity $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}$, where $\ensuremath{\omega}=\ensuremath{\int}({f}^{2}(r)\ensuremath{-}1)d\mathrm{r}$ is a "correlation parameter" and $\ensuremath{\rho}$ the average particle density. To the extent that $|\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}|$ is small, it provides a true expansion parameter. A detailed technical discussion of the cluster expansions is given, with special emphasis on their symmetry properties upon truncation. Although the many-body problem is soluble by simultaneous diagonalization of the matrices (
Hmn) and (
Nmn), it is preferable first to transform to an orthonormal basis of "unperturbed" correlated functions ${{\ensuremath{\Theta}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$ with respect to which the Hamiltonian and identity operators have the matrix representations (
Hmn) and $({N}_{\mathrm{mn}})=({\ensuremath{\delta}}_{\mathrm{mn}})$, and then to attempt the separate diagonalization of (
Hmn). In general, such a transformation is expedited by the L\"owdin procedure carried out to the desired order in $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}$. However, a Schmidt orthogonalization scheme might prove more advantageous in specific cases. Field-theoretic techniques (of both perturbative and nonperturbative nature) may be brought to bear in the diagonalization of (
Hmn). The inverse of the unitary transformation which takes the basis ${{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$ into the basis ${{\ensuremath{\Theta}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$, applied to the given singular Hamiltonian, leads---for any
F in the class considered---to a non-singular "effective Hamiltonian." Following this formal cue, we set out to construct explicitly a second-quantized effective Hamiltonian which generates the same matrix elements, to prescribed order in $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}$, when operating between independent-particle kets of the model occupation-number representation, as does the given Hamiltonian in the configuration-space representation, between the corresponding correlated functions of the L\"owdin basis. The quasiparticles described by this effective Hamiltonian interact via well-behaved two-body, three-body, \ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{},
Q-body, \ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{} potentials, in contrast to the highly singular two-body interactions of the real particles. For small $|\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}|$, the effective two-body forces predominate. An avenue to deeper understanding of the applicability of the nuclear-shell model and the dressed-quasiparticle theory of liquid
He3 has been opened. This article treats only the formalism for a uniform extended medium. Numerical calculations, as well as the extension of the method to finite systems, will follow.
We propose a new, alternative method for ab-initio calculations of the electronic structure of solids, which has been specifically adapted to treat many-body effects in a more rigorous way than many existing ab-initio methods. We start from a standard band-structure calculation for an effective one-particle Hamiltonian approximately describing the material of interest. This yields a suitable set of one-particle basis functions, from which well localized Wannier functions can be constructed using a method proposed by Marzari and Vanderbilt. Within this (minimal) basis of localized Wannier functions the matrix elements of the non-interacting (one-particle) Hamiltonian as well as the Coulomb matrix elements can be calculated. The result is a many-body Hamiltonian in second quantization with parameters determined from first principles calculations for the material of interest. The Hamiltonian is in the form of a multi-band Hamiltonian in second quantization (a kind of extended, multi-band Hubbard model) such that all the standard many-body methods can be applied. We explicitly show how this approach can be solved in the simplest many-body approximation, the mean-field Hartree-Fock approximation (HFA), which takes into account exact exchange and corrects for self-interaction effects.
The calculation of a wavefunction took about two afternoons, and five wavefunctions were calculated in the whole …. Wigner and Seitz, 1933 Summary In order to explain many important properties of materials and phenomena, it is necessary to go beyond independent-particle approximations and directly account for many-body effects that result from electronic interaction. The many-body problem is a major scientific challenge, but there has been great progress resulting from theoretical developments and advances in computation. This chapter is a short introduction to the interacting-electron problem, with some of the history that has led up to the concepts and methods described in this book. The many-body interacting-electron problem ranks among the most fascinating and fruitful areas of research in physics and chemistry. It has a rich history, starting from the early days of quantum mechanics and continuing with new intellectual challenges and opportunities. The vitality of electronic structure theory arises in large part from the close connection with experiment and applications. It is spurred on by new discoveries and advances in techniques that probe the behavior of electrons in depth. In turn, theoretical concepts and calculations can now make predictions that suggest new experiments, as well as provide quantitative information that is difficult or not yet possible to measure experimentally. This book is concerned with the effects of interactions between electrons beyond independent-particle approximations. Some phenomena cannot be explained by any independent-electron method, such as broadening and lifetime of excited states and two-particle bound states (excitons) that are crucial for optical properties of materials. There are many other examples, such as the van derWaals interaction between neutral molecules that arises from the dipole–induced dipole interaction. This force, which is entirely due to correlation between electrons, is an essential mechanism determining the functions of biological systems. Other properties, such as thermodynamically stable magnetic phases, would not exist if there were no interactions between electrons; even though mean-field approximations can describe average effects, they do not account for fluctuations around the average. Ground-state properties, such as the equilibrium structures of molecules and solids, can be described by density functional theory (DFT) and the Kohn–Sham independent-particle equations. However, present approximations are often not sufficient, and for many properties the equations, when used in a straightforward way, do not give a proper description, even in principle.
Describing many-body quantum systems has been an analytically and computationally challenging task since the advent of quantum mechanics. However, in the past 50 years as a result of our technological advancement and the emergence of methods such as density-functional theory (DFT), we have taken crucial steps forward regarding our ability to study and understand large quantum systems. In this work,we have studied the extended Hubbard model using a mean-field approximation where we have tested an approach to the long-ranged electronic interaction that is not entirely local. We have developed a near-local approximation (NLA) for the model under study, where the exact non-local electronic interaction at site i is approximated using the densities at a pair of sites neighbouring i in addition to the density at i. As preliminary to a discussion of NLA, we showed results for the density of states of systems with a three-site supercell, thus providing a simple characterization of the mean-field treatment (in the case of local interactions only). When it comes to the main results of our work, i.e. a derivation and the testing of the NLA, our findings can be summarised as follows: we have found three NLA variants, namely a left site approximation (LSA), a right site approximation (RSA) and a center site approximation (CSA). Furthermore, we have found that CSA performs better than a local approximation both under the effect of a parabolic external potential and a distorted one. We have also found that the performance of LSA and RSA are scarce in general. Albeit this work (being based on the extended Hubbard model under a mean-field approximation) does not address exchange and correlation effects directly, it provides a first step towards future work where a near-local treatment is carried out on more accurate grounds.