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Journal of the Physical Society of Japan

Projection Operators in the Theory of Two-Time Green Functions

Masakazu Ichiyanagi

Published Mar 1, 1972• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

New projection operators are introduced in the theory of two-time Green functions. The self-energy part of the Green function is expressed in terms of the random force whose time development differes from usual one by a factor (1- P ), P being the projection operator. In the case of the Bose system, we obtained the time-relaxation expression for the width function \(\varGamma\)( k , ω) of the dynamical structure factor, which satisfies the sum rule by Puff.

DOI
10.1143/jpsj.32.604

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New projection operators are introduced in the theory of two-time Green functions. The self-energy part of the Green function is expressed in terms of the random force whose time development differes from usual one by a factor (1- P ), P being the projection operator. In the case of the Bose system, we obtained the time-relaxation expression for the width function (\varGamma)( k , ω) of the dynamical structure factor, which satisfies the sum rule by Puff.
Overview Projection operator technique is simple in purpose. It allows us to separate the dynamical evolution of a quantity into two parts: known and unknown, the latter to be evaluated. However, this technique serves multiple purposes in TDSM. It is used to derive a reduced equation of motion for the relaxation of a dynamical variable. It is also used to derive expression for an experimentally observed TCF in terms of theoretically known TCFs. This technique was developed by Zwanzig, who was inspired by Kubo’s approach of “reduction in degrees of freedom” in an interacting many-body system. In the projection operator method, we divide the time evolution of a dynamical variable A ( t ) into two parts: (i) one through a relevant subspace that is closely related to A and varies on a similar time scale, and (ii) an orthogonal subspace, which could be fast and therefore can be averaged out to obtain a time-dependent friction kernel. The idea then is that the first contribution is known while the second may be described accurately by projecting it onto the relevant subspace [that is, (i)]. In the derivation of the reduced equation of motion, one starts with the Liouville equation and projects out irrelevant degrees of freedom to obtain, after specific algebraic manipulations, an equation of motion of the dynamical variable. The final relaxation equation has the form of the Langevin equation with microscopic expressions for the terms involved (frequency term, the friction, and the random force term). This final equation of motion is often termed relaxation equation or memory function equation. It finds wide use in the study of time-dependent statistical mechanics. In the present chapter we derive the memory function equation and discuss a few applications.
We present a new derivation of Time-Independent Perturbation Theory (PT) that is shorter and more general than the usual ones presented in Quantum Mechanics (QM) texts. Expressing the task of PT in terms of Green's functions, the key to our approach is to write the bound-state equation for the perturbed wave function directly in terms of the unperturbed Green's function. Not only does this greatly simplify the derivation of PT expressions for energies and wave functions, but it does so without using the orthogonality or completeness properties of unperturbed Hamiltonian eigenstates, which form the basis of standard derivations of PT. As a result, our approach does not require the potentials to be energy independent as is required in standard derivations, nor does it require the inverse free Green's operator G0−1(E) to be a linear function of energy, as is the case in QM. Consequently, our approach is applicable not only to QM but also to various extensions of QM, including Quantum Field Theory. For students, our approach provides an easy-to-understand introduction to the use of Green's functions in QM while at the same time presenting a description of PT that is shorter and more fundamental than the standard ones currently advocated.
The self-energy method for quantum impurity models expresses the correlation part of the self-energy in terms of the ratio of two Green's functions and allows for a more accurate calculation of equilibrium spectral functions than is possible directly from the one-particle Green's function [Bulla et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 10, 8365 (1998)], for example, within the numerical renormalization group method. In addition, the self-energy itself is a central quantity required in the dynamical mean field theory of strongly correlated lattice models. Here, we show how to generalize the self-energy method to the time-dependent situation for the prototype model of strong correlations, the Anderson impurity model. We use the equation-of-motion method to obtain closed expressions for the local Green's function in terms of a time-dependent correlation self-energy, with the latter being given as a ratio of a one-particle time-dependent Green's function and a higher-order correlation function. We benchmark this self-energy approach to time-dependent spectral functions against the direct approach within the time-dependent numerical renormalization group method. The self-energy approach improves the accuracy of time-dependent spectral function calculations, and the closed-form expressions for the Green's function allow for a clear picture of the time evolution of spectral features at the different characteristic time scales. The self-energy approach is of potential interest also for other quantum impurity solvers for real-time evolution, including time-dependent density matrix renormalization group and continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo techniques.
The development of the time-translation operators in a matrix element of an arbitrary operator is examined. It is noted that we may interpret time as evolving from some remotely early time (t0) to a time in the far future (t∝) and then back to (t0). Using this interpretation, a perturbation expansion is developed for Green's functions defined along this path and a separation of the two-particle interaction terms into self-energy parts and single-particle Green's function terms is justified for quantities on this path. A connection is established between the real-time Green's functions and the Green's function defined along the path, thereby yielding a perturbation expansion for the real-time functions and a justification of the separation of the interaction terms in the equations of motion for the real-time quantities. The transport equations of Kadanoff and Baym are derived without resorting to an analytic continuation from imaginary times and without the correction terms of Fujita.