This article presents an alternative formulation of quasi-degenerate perturbation theory (QDPT). The development results by simplifying established many-body (MB) techniques to systems of non-interacting particles (NIP). While the physical information of a NIP system is fully equivalent with that of the underlying one-particle system, NIP adaptions of MB schemes can acquire useful new roles in the one-particle context. In particular, the algebraic-diagrammatic construction (ADC) approach to the particle-detachment part of the electron propagator, turns into a new formalism of QDPT for the original one-particle system, establishing a diagrammatic perturbation theory for the matrix elements of the effective hamiltonian and the associated effective eigenvector coefficients (EEC). Using the NIP-ADC procedure explicit QDPT expansions are derived through third order. Alternatively, the intermediate state representation (ISR), underlying the ADC approach, allows one to construct the effective secular quantities directly from successive orders in the PT expansions of the NIP ground state and ground-state energy. Moreover, exact closed-form expressions can be derived for the effective hamiltonian and the EEC matrix in terms of 'target state' eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the one-particle system. These results are fully consistent with corresponding expressions derived within the QDPT context. The NIP approach to QDPT is not confined to actual particles but applies to arbitrary quantum systems. Any quantum system can be seen as formally constituting a "hyper-particle" giving rise to a system of non-interacting hyper-particles. The NIP adaptions of the biorthogonal coupled-cluster (BCC) and unitary coupled-cluster (UCC) methods are briefly discussed as well.
This article presents an alternative formulation of quasi-degenerate perturbation theory (QDPT). The development results by simplifying established many-body (MB) techniques to systems of non-interacting particles (NIP). While the physical information of a NIP system is fully equivalent with that of the underlying one-particle system, NIP adaptions of MB schemes can acquire useful new roles in the one-particle context. In particular, the algebraic-diagrammatic construction (ADC) approach to the particle-detachment part of the electron propagator, turns into a new formalism of QDPT for the original one-particle system, establishing a diagrammatic perturbation theory for the matrix elements of the effective hamiltonian and the associated effective eigenvector coefficients (EEC). Using the NIP-ADC procedure explicit QDPT expansions are derived through third order. Alternatively, the intermediate state representation (ISR), underlying the ADC approach, allows one to construct the effective secular quantities directly from successive orders in the PT expansions of the NIP ground state and ground-state energy. Moreover, exact closed-form expressions can be derived for the effective hamiltonian and the EEC matrix in terms of 'target state' eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the one-particle system. These results are fully consistent with corresponding expressions derived within the QDPT context. The NIP approach to QDPT is not confined to actual particles but applies to arbitrary quantum systems. Any quantum system can be seen as formally constituting a "hyper-particle" giving rise to a system of non-interacting hyper-particles. The NIP adaptions of the biorthogonal coupled-cluster (BCC) and unitary coupled-cluster (UCC) methods are briefly discussed as well.
Adapting a veritable many-body method to a system of non-interacting particles (NIP), while being trivial from a physical point of view, can be of interest with regard to methodological aspects. In this article we study the NIP versions of the bi-orthogonal (BCC) and unitary (UCC) coupled-cluster methods both for the ground state and generalized excitations. The essential simplification here is that the cluster operator is confined to single (or p-h) excitations. For the ground state, specifically the CC amplitude equations, the NIP versions illustrate the enormous complexity of the UCC approach as compared to the BCC concept. In the treatment of excitations, on the other hand, the UCC outperforms the BCC method, as the UCC secular matrix is block-diagonal with respect to the excitation classes, e.g., 1h (one-hole), 2h-1p (two-hole-one particle), … excitations of N−1 particles. Moreover, the UCC basis states are essentially equivalent with the states used in the ADC/ISR (algebraic-diagrammatic construction/intermediate state representation) approach, whose NIP version has been discussed in a recent paper [J. Schirmer, arXiv:2309.15721].
A new type of ``intermediate'' state, \ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\Psi}${\mathrm{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}}_{\mathit{J}}$〉, is introduced in the representation of many-body propagators and related resolvent matrix elements. A simple algebraic procedure is presented for constructing the unitary transformation matrix Q that relates the intermediate states and the exact energy eigenstates, \ensuremath{\Vert}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}_{\mathit{n}}$〉, of the interacting system. Here the starting point is the matrix X of generalized spectroscopic amplitudes 〈${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}_{\mathit{n}}$\ensuremath{\Vert}C${\mathrm{^}}_{\mathit{J}}$\ensuremath{\Vert}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}_{0}^{\mathit{N}}$〉, where C${\mathrm{^}}_{\mathit{J}}$ denotes a physical excitation operator and \ensuremath{\Vert}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}_{0}^{\mathit{N}}$〉 is the N-electron ground state. A block QR decomposition [G. H. Golub and C. F. von Loan, MatrixB Computations (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1989)] of X according to the equation X=Q F allows one to determine explicit expressions for the subblocks of Q and the intermediate propagator representations constituted by a nondiagonal effective interaction matrix C and an effective spectroscopic matrix f. These effective quantities f and C are formulated entirely in terms of ground-state density-matrix elements and related energy expectation values. The relevance of the intermediate representations as a means for deriving computational schemes is based on the regularity and compactness of the perturbation expansions for the effective matrices f and C. These basic properties also establish that the intermediate representations are closed-form versions of the algebraic-diagrammatic construction approximation schemes derived previously as a reformulation of the original diagrammatic propagator perturbation series. The intermediate representations represent a link between algebraic and diagrammatic approaches in the field of propagator methods and are expected to be useful also in the development of nonperturbative approximations.
A purely algebraic approach to Green's functions is presented. The new formulation allows the determination of a closed-form equation for Green's functions which depends only on the ground state of the system. By a straightforward perturbation expansion of this state an interesting approximation scheme is obtained which is nonperturbative in the final states (e.g., excited or ionic states). This method, which can be used for various propagators, is explicitly applied to the particle-particle propagator carrying out the scheme up to third order. The approach is discussed in detail and briefly compared with the well-established algebraic diagrammatic construction approximation scheme.
The concept of an effective Hamiltonian in Fock space is introduced. It is based on the division of the entire one-particle space into subspaces of ‘‘active’’ and ‘‘inactive’’ orbitals. The effective Fock space Hamiltonian has—for active model states—the same eigenvalues as the full Hamiltonian. The theory outlined in this context differs from that of paper I mainly in a different definition of the ‘‘diagonal part’’ of an operator, and in the fact that the ‘‘quasidegenerate case’’ applies throughout. The separation theorem, and as a consequence the connected diagram theorem, is shown to hold, in a more limited sense though, even for those normalizations where it did not in the context of universal wave and energy operators. Unlike in the theory of the ‘‘universal’’ operators of paper I the Fock space and n-particle Hilbert space approaches with analogous normalizations are no longer equivalent. In particular, the Primas normalization with a fully Lie-algebraic structure does not lead to a connected diagram expansion if it is formulated in n-particle Hilbert space, only so in a Fock space formulation. In n-particle Hilbert space with the present definition of the diagonal part of an operator the normalizations b (‘‘canonical’’) and c (‘‘Primas’’) happen to agree. As an alternative to the construction of the wave and energy operator W and L by perturbation theory the nonperturbative approach is presented as a generalization of the coupled-cluster method, in detail both in the intermediate and in the unitary normalization. In the unitary variant only a linear system for σ (the logarithm of the wave operator) has to be solved in order to get L correct through fifth order in perturbation theory with important contributions of higher orders included. A generalization of the Hartree–Fock method to Fock space theory is outlined, which guarantees stationarity of all (active) eigenstates with respect to one-particle transformations. A generalized electron pair theory is also defined. An analysis of the necessary computational steps shows that the nonperturbative approaches do not require significantly more computational effort than perturbation theory to the corresponding order. As a numerical example the H2 molecule in a small basis is discussed.
The individual particle theory of many body systems was studied starting from a microscopic point of view. A technique which is equivalent to a generalized thermodynamics was used to show that, under the appropriate conditions of temperature and external field, the quasi-particle approach is correct for three very dissimilar systemsi the normal degenerate Fermi system, the metallic electron-phonon system, and the polaron. The fact that an approach like this works for such dissimilar systems emphasizes the underlying unity of the quasi-particle models. The concept that the real t~me non-equilibrium self-energy and the incoherent part of the density-density correlation function may be generated as functional derivatives of a generalized thermodynamic potential (~), together with local translational and rotational invariance and Galilean relativity, leads to a transformation from the microscopic particle density variables g«p,m,R,T) to those of the quasi-particle theory n (R,T). ~ - p- It was shown that, for zero temperature, such a ~ derivability is exact; at low temperature and for slowly varying fields, this ~ derivability is approximately true. This was shown by a procedure which is eqUivalent to an expansion in terms of the real scattering probability for quasiparticles. At low temperature and for slowly varying fields, such real scattering is very improbable and the expansion parameter is small. Perturbation theory was used only to determine the actual size of terms which, on physical grounds are necessarily small. As such, this approach is non-perturbative, depending only on properties of the exact selfenergies and correlation functions. In addition to demonstrating that the quasi-particle models are correct, information on the regions of validity for ~hese models is obtained. .As by-products of these derivations, microscopic expressions for the parameters of the quasi-particle theory and simple microscopic expressions for the currents in degenerate Fermi systems and the electron-phonon system are obtained.
A fundamental principle in condensed matter physics is the effective description in terms of quasiparticles. The high-energy part of the system is accounted for by renormalized properties of the quasiparticles, providing both, an accurate description and interpretation of the relevant low-energy physics. We consider two classes of methods suited to provide effective quasiparticle descriptions in the thermodynamic limit: (non-perturbative) linked-cluster expansions ((N)LCEs) and continuous unitary transformations (CUTs). We focus specifically on the combination of both methods, providing a different perspective and solutions to existing challenges. LCEs provide high-order series expansions in a perturbation parameter, by combining effective Hamiltonians determined on finite clusters. We introduce a white-graph expansion for the method of perturbative continuous unitary transformations when implemented as an LCE. The essential idea behind an expansion in white graphs is to perform an optimized bookkeeping during the calculation by exploiting the model-independent effective Hamiltonian in second quantization and the associated inherent cluster additivity. This approach is shown to be especially well suited for microscopic models with many coupling constants, since the total number of relevant graphs is drastically reduced. The white-graph expansion is exemplified for a two-dimensional quantum spin model, illustrating its efficiency. In NLCEs, the perturbative treatment of finite clusters is replaced by a numerical exact (block) diagonalization. While LCEs are restricted due to their perturbative nature, the non-perturbative variant is not. In graph-based continuous unitary transformations (gCUTs), the block diagonalization is achieved by a non-perturbative CUT performed on finite clusters. The central objective of this thesis is a modification of the gCUT scheme, allowing to treat two kinds of major issues, denoted by pseudo and genuine decay, occuring for NLCEs due to the non-perturbative treatment of clusters. Indeed, one finds surprising effects caused by the non-perturbative renormalization. In particular, we identify a fundamental challenge for any non-perturbative approach based on finite clusters resulting from the reduced symmetry on graphs, most importantly the breaking of translational symmetry when targeting the properties of excited states. This can be traced back to the appearance of intruder states in the low-energy spectrum, which represent a major obstacle in quasi-degenerate perturbation theory. Here, a generalized notion of cluster additivity is introduced, which is used to formulate an optimized scheme of gCUTs, allowing to solve and to physically understand this major issue. Most remarkably, our improved scheme demands to go beyond the paradigm of using the exact eigenvectors on graphs. We demonstrate that the modified scheme is correct in the non-perturbative regime. Even at quantum criticality, the scheme gives valid results. To determine the critical behavior, one must rely on extrapolation schemes. We introduce a generic approach to extract critical properties from sequences of numerical data which is directly relevant for NLCEs. The scheme is applied to the quantum phase transition between the dimerized and the isotropic spin 1/2 Heisenberg chain. Finally, we investigate a scenario where the gapped quasiparticle excitation is not stable for all momenta, i.e., the one-particle mode merges with the continuum for certain momenta and one observes quasiparticle decay. In this case, intruder states merging with the low-energy spectrum on finite clusters represent genuine physics of the system. Again, a proper renormalization on finite clusters satisfies the generalized cluster additivity. Our adjusted renormalization approach performed on finite clusters does not necessarily lead to a full decoupling of the quasiparticle subspaces and the remaining interactions are part of the effective description. The resulting effective Hamiltonian can be analyzed to describe quasiparticle decay in the thermodynamic limit. The modified scheme is applied to four-leg spin 1/2 Heisenberg ladders, providing insights into the spectral properties. Overall, this thesis presents several important developments for the derivation of effective quasiparticle pictures in quantum spin models via perturbative and non-perturbative LCEs, opening various opportunities for future investigations.