In these lectures I shall give a review of the non‐relativistic many‐body perturbation theory (MBPT). In the first section a brief summary will be given of the Rayleigh‐Schrödinger perturbation theory for non‐degenerate and degenerate systems, and in the second section the second quantization and the graphical representation and introduced. In the third section the diagrammatic expansions are developed for closed‐ and open‐shell systems, and in the fourth section, finally, the procedure is generalized to the all‐order and coupled‐cluster approaches.
In these lectures I shall give a review of the non‐relativistic many‐body perturbation theory (MBPT). In the first section a brief summary will be given of the Rayleigh‐Schrödinger perturbation theory for non‐degenerate and degenerate systems, and in the second section the second quantization and the graphical representation and introduced. In the third section the diagrammatic expansions are developed for closed‐ and open‐shell systems, and in the fourth section, finally, the procedure is generalized to the all‐order and coupled‐cluster approaches.
Scope The book focuses primarily on many-body (or better, many-electron) methods for electron correlation. These include Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory (RSPT) , particularly in its diagrammatic representation (referred to as many-body perturbation theory , or MBPT ), and coupled-cluster (CC) theory; their relationship to configuration interaction (CI) is included. Further extensions address properties other than the energy, and also excited states and multireference CC and MBPT methods. The many-body algebraic and diagrammatic methods used in electronic structure theory have their origin in quantum field theory and in the study of nuclear matter and nuclear structure. The second-quantization formalism was first introduced in a treatment of quantized fields by Dirac (1927) and was extended to fermion systems by Jordan and Klein (1927) and by Jordan and Wigner (1928). This formalism is particularly useful in field theory, in scattering problems and in the study of infinite systems because it easily handles problems involving infinite, indefinite or variable numbers of particles. The diagrammatic approach was introduced into field theory by Feynman (1949a,b) and applied to many-body systems by Hugenholtz (1957) and by Goldstone (1957). Many-body perturbation theory and its linked-diagram formalism were first introduced by Brueckner and Levinson (1955) and by Brueckner (1955), and were formalized by Goldstone (1957). Other important contributions to the methodology, first in field theory and then in the theory of nuclear structure, are due to Dyson (1949a,b), Wick (1950), Hubbard (1957, 1958a,b) and Frantz and Mills (1960). Applications to the electronic structure of atoms and molecules began with the work of Kelly (1963, 1964a,b, 1968), and molecular applications using finite analytical basis sets appeared in the work of Bartlett and Silver (1974a, b).
A brief review of the history of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and its applications in nuclear physics is given. Problems regarding its application to nuclear-structure calculations are discussed and analysed. It is concluded that the usefulness of nuclear MBPT in terms of an expansion in the nuclear reaction matrix G for the calculation of effective interactions in shell-model investigations is severely challenged and restricted by the problems and uncertainties connected with this approach. New methods based on unitary transformation approaches have proven to be more accurate and reliable, particularly for light nuclei.
Many-body perturbation theories (MBPT) (both single and multireference), by design, are capable of representing electron correlation very well. However, the practical implementation of these methods for many-electron systems beyond a certain order is extremely difficult, if not impossible. For instance, there are hardly any calculations beyond third order at the multireference and fifth order at the single reference of perturbation theories. Thus, these methods are typically limited to systems where the higher-order electron correlation effect is not significant. A practical solution to this problem is the coupled cluster theory, which was first introduced by Coester [20] and Coester and Kümmel [21] in nuclear physics and was later adopted in the electron structure theory by Čížek [23, 106] and Paldus and Čížek [107]. The coupled-cluster (CC) theory is a non-perturbative all-order theory. This stateof-the-art theory has now been recognized as the basis of modern quantitative quantum chemistry and atomic physics for high-precision calculations. Its superior accuracy is rooted in the exponential ansatz for the wave function, which provides an energy expression that scales correctly with the number of electrons and under certain provisions leads to a faster convergence of the many-body expansion.
Second-order many-body perturbation theory [MBPT(2)] is the lowest-ranked member of a systematic series of approximations convergent at the exact solutions of the Schrödinger equations. It has served and continues to serve as the testing ground for new approximations, algorithms, and even theories. This article introduces this basic theory from a variety of viewpoints including the Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory, the many-body Green's function theory based on the Dyson equation, and the related Feynman-Goldstone diagrams. It also explains the important properties of MBPT(2) such as size consistency, its ability to describe dispersion interactions, and divergence in metals. On this basis, this article surveys three major advances made recently by the authors to this theory. They are a finite-temperature extension of MBPT(2) and the resolution of the Kohn-Luttinger conundrum, a stochastic evaluation of the correlation and self-energies of MBPT(2) using the Monte Carlo integration of their Laplace-transformed expressions, and an extension to anharmonic vibrational zero-point energies and transition frequencies based on the Dyson equation.
A new approach to the diagrammatic formulation of many-body perturbation theory for open-shell systems is presented. The formalism is based on a generalized form of the Bloch equation that also generates the Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation expansion for a system with several open shells. Second quantization in the particle-hole formulation is used together with Wick's theorem in order to derive graphical rules in the usual way. The linked-diagram property of the wave operator and of the effective interaction is shown by expanding the wave operator in terms of normal products of connected diagram clusters, in analogy with the exp(S) formalism of Coester and Kümmel for closed-shell systems. Self-consistent “coupled-cluster” equations are derived for the open-shell case from the generalized Bloch equation by a straightforward extension of the procedure of Čížek and Paldus. The application of such equations for investigating different properties of open-shell atoms is discussed.