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Time independent mean-field theory

John W. Negele

Published Feb 1, 1980• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The physical and theoretical motivations for the time-dependent mean-field theory are presented, and the successes and limitations of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock initial-vaue problem are reviewed. New theoretical developments are described in the treatment of two-body correlations and the formulation of a quantum mean-field theory of large-amplitude collective motion and tunneling decay. Finally, the mean-field theory is used to obtain new insights into the phenomenon of pion condensation in finite nuclei. 18 figures.

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The physical and theoretical motivations for the time-dependent mean-field theory are presented, and the successes and limitations of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock initial-vaue problem are reviewed. New theoretical developments are described in the treatment of two-body correlations and the formulation of a quantum mean-field theory of large-amplitude collective motion and tunneling decay. Finally, the mean-field theory is used to obtain new insights into the phenomenon of pion condensation in finite nuclei. 18 figures.
In the present note, a summary of selected aspects of timedependent mean-field theory is first recalled. This approach is optimized to describe one-body degrees of freedom. A special focus is made on how this microscopic theory can be reduced to a macroscopic dynamic for a selected set of collective variables. Important physical phenomena like adiabaticity/diabaticity, one-body dissipation or memory effect are discussed. Special aspects related to the use of a time-dependent density functional instead of a time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory based on a bare hamiltonian are underlined. The absence of proper description of complex internal correlations however strongly impacts the predictive power of mean-field. A brief overview of theories going beyond the independent particles/quasi-particles theory is given. Then, a special attention is paid for finite fermionic systems at low internal excitation. In that case, quantum fluctuations in collective space that are poorly treated at the meanfield level, are important. Several approaches going beyond mean-field, that are anticipated to improve the description of quantum fluctuations, are discussed: the Balian-V´en´eroni variational principle, the Time-Dependent Random Phase Approximation and the recently proposed Stochastic Mean-Field theory. Relations between these theories are underlined as well as their advantages and shortcomings.
A theory is presented in which approximations to quantum observables are obtained by applying the stationary-phase approximation to an exact functional integral representation of the many-body evolution operator. The requirement that the leading correction to the stationary-phase approximation vanish leads to a time-dependent Hartree-Fock mean field. Application of the theory to the Fourier transform of the trace of the evolution operator and the study of its poles yields quantized bound states with large amplitude. The theory is shown to reproduce the familiar static Hartree-Fock and random-phase approximations in the appropriate limits and yields an excellent approximation to the entire spectrum of the exactly solvable Lipkin model.NUCLEAR STRUCTURE Derivation of time-dependent mean-field theory from functional integral representation. Quantum theory of large amplitude collective motion. Application to Lipkin model.
Quantum tunneling in many-body systems is the subject of many experimental and theoretical studies in fields ranging from cold atoms to nuclear physics. However, theoretical description of quantum tunneling with strongly interacting particles, such as nucleons in atomic nuclei, remains a major challenge in quantum physics. An initial-value approach to tunneling accounting for the degrees of freedom of each interacting particle is highly desirable. Inspired by existing methods to describe instantons with periodic solutions in imaginary time, we investigate the possibility to use an initial value approach to describe tunneling at the mean-field level. Real-time and imaginary-time Hartree dynamics are compared to the exact solution in the case of two particles in a two-well potential. Whereas real-time evolutions exhibit a spurious self-trapping effect preventing tunneling in strongly interacting systems, the imaginary-time-dependent mean-field method predicts tunneling rates in excellent agreement with the exact solution. Being an initial-value method, it could be more suitable than approaches requiring periodic solutions to describe realistic systems such as heavy-ion fusion.
Mean field theory has an unexpected group theoretic mathematical foundation. Instead of representation theory which applies to most group theoretic quantum models, Hartree-Fock and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov have been formulated in terms of coadjoint orbits for the groups U(n) and O(2n). The general theory of mean fields is formulated for any arbitrary Lie algebra {\textbf g} of fermion operators. The moment map provides the correspondence between the Hilbert space of microscopic wave functions and the dual space {\textbf g}∗^\ast∗ of densities. The coadjoint orbits of the group in the dual space are phase spaces on which time-dependent mean field theory is equivalent to a classical Hamiltonian dynamical system. Indeed it forms a finite-dimensional Lax system. The SU(3) mean field theory is constructed explicitly in the coadjoint orbit framework.
A general method for a microscopic description of nuclear dynamical problems is discussed. The method is based on a functional integral representation for the many-body time evolution operator U(tf,ti)U({t}_{f},{t}_{i})U(tf​,ti​). In the stationary phase limit, a time-dependent mean-field approximation for the matrix elements of UUU is obtained. Using standard procedures this allows for extraction of quantum mechanical information about bound states, tunneling, or scattering phenomena in a many-nucleon system. The approximation represents a natural generalization of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock method.NUCLEAR STRUCTURE, NUCLEAR REACTIONS derived mean-field approximation for matrix elements of $\mathrm{exp}(\ensuremath{-}iHt)$ from exact functional integral; discussed relation to static HF, TDHF, and scattering calculations.
In the stochastic mean-field approach, an ensemble of initial conditions is considered to incorporate correlations beyond the mean-field. Then each starting point is propagated separately using the Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock equation of motion. This approach provides a rather simple tool to better describe fluctuations compared to the standard TDHF. Several illustrations are presented showing that this theory can be rather effective to treat the dynamics close to a quantum phase transition. Applications to fusion and transfer reactions demonstrate the great improvement in the description of mass dispersion.