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.
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 tme 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.
Art is the elimination of the unnecessary. Pablo Picasso Summary Condensed matter is constituted by a huge number of electrons and nuclei interacting with Coulomb potentials. The topic of this chapter is a way to deal with the full, coupled problem by separating it into a part that is tractable and the rest that is approximated. This naturally leads to the appearance of dynamical fields, and to the concept of “quasi-particles” that have the same quantum numbers as non-interacting electrons. The quasi-particles obey equations where the potential and bare interactions in the hamiltonian are replaced by dynamical self-energies and screened interactions that can describe many of the effects of correlation. In this chapter we discuss the intuitive concepts behind this approach in general terms to motivate the more rigorous formulations and approximations used in the Green's function methods of the following chapter and in Part III. The first equations of this book, Eqs. (1.1) and (1.2), express the fundamental theory of matter in terms of electrons and nuclei that interact with Coulomb potentials. For systems with only a few electrons, a solution of the problem can be obtained by exact diagonalization, using configuration interaction methods. For many-electron systems one has to resort to other methods. For example, QMC stochastic simulations (Chs. 22–25) are among the most accurate methods known to calculate certain expectation values, such as equilibrium thermodynamic properties, total energies, the density, and various static correlation functions like those in Ch. 5. Other properties such as excitation spectra are more difficult to access with QMC. Straightforward perturbation theory is, in general, not appropriate since interactions among the electrons are of the same order of magnitude as the independent-particle terms. Hence, we must develop other approaches. One strategy that gives access to equilibrium thermodynamic as well as dynamical excitation properties is to separate the interacting many-body problem into a part that is tractable by some means and the rest of the problem that is dealt with more approximately. The present chapter is devoted to this idea. It is a prelude to many-body Green's function methods; the aim is to provide a unified framework for the developments in Chs. 8–21, along with a qualitative description of the most relevant quantities.
This is the first of a series of papers dealing with many-particle systems from a unified, nonperturbative point of view. It contains derivations and discussions of various field-theoretical techniques which will be applied in subsequent papers. In a short introduction the general method of approach is summarized, and its relationship to other field-theoretic problems indicated. In the second section the macroscopic properties of the spectra of many-particle systems are described. Asymptotic evaluations are performed which characterize these macroscopic features in terms of intensive parameters, and the relationship of these parameters to thermodynamics is discussed. The special characteristics of the ground state are shown to follow as a limiting case of the asymptotic evaluations. The third section is devoted to the time-dependent field correlation functions, or Green's functions, which describe the microscopic behavior of a multiparticle system. These functions are defined, and related to intensive macroscopic variables when the energy and number of particles are large. Spectral representations and other properties of various one-particle Green's functions are derived. In the fourth section the treatment of non-equilibrium processes is considered. As a particular example, the electromagnetic properties of a system are expressed in terms of the special two-particle Green's function which describes current correlation. The discussion yields specifically a fluctuation-dissipation theorem, a sum rule for conductivity, and certain dispersion relations. The fifth section deals with the differential equations which determine the Green's functions. The boundary conditions that characterize the Green's function equations are exhibited without reference to adiabatic decoupling. A method for solving the equations approximately, by treating the correlations among successively larger numbers of particles, is considered. The first approximation in this sequence is shown to yield a generalized Hartree-like equation. A related, but rigorous, identity for the single-particle Green's function is then derived. A second approximation, which takes certain two-particle correlations into account, is shown to produce various additional effects: The interaction between particles is altered in a manner characterized by the intensive macroscopic parameters, and the modification and spread of the energy-momentum relation come into play. In the final section compact formal expressions for the Green's functions and other physical quantities are derived. Alternative equations and systematic approximations for the Green's functions are obtained.
Part 1 Fundamentals and examples: systems of identical particles second quantization for fermions second quantization for bosons unitary transformations and field operators example - the Hamiltonian of translationally invariant systems in second quantization density operators the Hartree-Fock approximation restricted Hartree-Fock approximation and the symmetry dilemma Hartree-Fock for translationally invariant systems the homogeneous electron gas in the Hartree-Fock approximation long-range correlations in the electron-gas - plasmons phonons superconductivity. Part 2 Green's functions: pictures the single-particle Green's function and the hierarchy of equations of motion. Part 3 Perturbation theory: time-dependent perturbation theory with adiabatic turning-on of the interaction particle and hole operators and Wick's theorem Feynman diagrams diagrammatic calculation of the vacuum amplitude an example - the Gell-Mann-Brueckner correlation energy of a dense electron gas diagrammatic calculation of the single-particle Green's function - Dyson's equation diagrammatic analysis of the Green's function G(kappa, omega) self-consistent perturbation theory, higher-order Hartree-Fock theory the quasi-particle concept diagrammatic calculation of the two-particle Green's function and the polarization propagator effective interaction and dressed vertices plasmons in higher order perturbation theory at finite temperatures. Part 4 Fermi liquid theory: introduction equilibrium properties transport equation and collective modes microscopic derivation of the Landau fermi liquid theory applications to the Kondo problem.
This chapter examines the energy of the resulting quasi-particle using the Green function technique. The field-theoretic Green function technique developed originally by Feynman, Dyson, and others for quantum electrodynamics finds extensive applications to the many body problems encountered in different branches of physics, for its proven efficacy in dealing with the dynamical effects associated with these problems. The Green function formalism is essentially a systematic time-dependent perturbation theory involving certain quantities called the Green functions or propagators. The energy-dependent Green function, G, provides great many physical information about a system, in particular the energy of the quasi-particles. Puff and Whitfield have considered the thermodynamic Green functions for the problem and found at the end of the calculation the zero-temperature limit. In the zero-temperature limit the approximate thermodynamic Green function of Mahan becomes equivalent to the intermediate coupling polaron model of Haeringen and is thus expected to give the same result as given by method of Haeringen.
The widely used thermal Hartree-Fock (HF) theory is generalized to include the effect of electron correlation while maintaining its quasi-independent-particle framework. An electron-correlated internal energy (or grand potential) is postulated in consultation with the second-order finite-temperature many-body perturbation theory (MBPT), which then dictates the corresponding thermal orbital (quasiparticle) energies in such a way that all fundamental thermodynamic relations are obeyed. The associated density matrix is of a one-electron type, whose diagonal elements take the form of the Fermi-Dirac distribution functions, when the grand potential is minimized. The formulas for the entropy and chemical potential are unchanged from those of Fermi-Dirac or thermal HF theory. The theory thus stipulates a finite-temperature extension of the second-order Dyson self-energy of one-particle many-body Green's function theory and can be viewed as a second-order, diagonal, frequency-independent, thermal inverse Dyson equation. At low temperatures, the theory approaches finite-temperature MBPT of the same order, but it may outperform the latter at intermediate temperatures by including additional electron-correlation effects through orbital energies. A physical meaning of these thermal orbital energies is proposed (encompassing that of thermal HF orbital energies, which has been elusive) as a finite-temperature version of Janak's theorem.
In this work we investigate some aspects of the physics of strongly correlated systems by taking into account both electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions as basic mechanisms for reproducing electronic correlations in real materials. The relevance of the electron-electron interactions is discussed in the first part of this thesis in the framework of a self-consistent theoretical approach, named Composite Operator Method (COM), which accounts for the relevant quasi-particle excitations in terms of a set of composite operators that appear as a result of the modification imposed by the interactions on the canonical electronic fields. We show that the COM allows the calculation of all the relevant Green’s and correlation functions in terms of a number of unknown internal parameters to be determined self-consistently. Therefore, depending on the balance between unknown parameters and self-consistent equations, exact and approximate solutions can be obtained. By way of example, we discuss the application of the COM to the extended t-U- J-h model in the atomic limit, and to the two-dimensional single-band Hubbard model. In the former case, we show that the COM provides the exact solution of the model in one dimension. We study the effects of electronic correlations as responsible for the formation of a plethora of different charge and/or spin orderings. We report the phase diagram of the model, as well as a detailed analysis of both zero and finite temperature single-particle and thermodynamic properties. As far as the single-band Hubbard model is concerned, we illustrate an approximated selfconsistent scheme based on the choice of a two-field basis. We report a detailed analysis of many unconventional features that arise in single-particle properties, thermodynamics and system’s response functions. We emphasize that the accuracy of the COM in describing the effects of electronic correlations strongly relies on the choice of the basis, paving the way for possible multi-pole extensions to the twofield theory. To this purpose, we also study a three-field approach to the single-band Hubbard model, showing a significant step forward in the agreements with numerical data with respect to the two-pole results. The role of the electron-phonon interaction in the physics of strongly correlated systems is discussed in the second part of this thesis. We show that in highly polarizable lattices the competition between unscreened Coulomb and Fröhlich interactions results in a short-range polaronic exchange term Jp that favours the formation of local and light pairs of bosonic nature, named bipolarons, which condense with a critical temperature well in excess of hundred kelvins. These findings, discussed in the framework of the so-called polaronic t-Jp model, are further investigated in the presence of a finite on-site potential ~U , coming from the competition between on-site Coulomb and Fröhlich interactions. We discuss the role of ~U as the driving parameter for a small-to-large bipolaron transition, providing a possible explanation of the BEC-BCS crossover in terms of the properties of the bipolaronic ground state. Finally, we show that a hard-core bipolarons gas, studied as a charged Bose-Fermi mixture, allows for the description of many non Fermi liquid behaviours, allowing also for a microscopic explanation of pseudogap features in terms of a thermal-induced recombination of polarons and bipolarons, without any assumption on preexisting order or broken symmetries. [edited by Author]