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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Theory of semiclassical expansions for many-particle systems

J. Florencio

Published Jul 1, 1990• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a functional-integral method that is suitable for obtaining nonperturbative solutions to the partition function of fermion systems. The density matrix is cast as an expansion about the classical path contributions, and the quantum corrections can be calculated systematically by using retarded propagators in the space holomorphic functions. It is shown that the semiclassical expansion amounts to a high-temperature expansion, where the first nonvanishing quantum correction is of O(${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\beta}}}^{2}$). Each term of the semiclassical expansion may contain the coupling parameter in all orders of perturbation theory. The method can also be extended to boson systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.42.555

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We formulate the density matrix of many-body systems as functional integrals in the holomorphic representation, similar to the S-matrix formulation in field theory. Symmetry and antisymmetry requirements are built into the integration variables: c-numbers for bosons and Grassmann numbers for fermions. The integrals have well-defined normalization. They yield first-order differential equations for semiclassical extremal configurations and corrections to it, and do not require periodicity conditions on the individual integration paths, unlike the formulations found in the literature. We present some applications to simple boson and fermion systems.
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Abstract The functional integral representation of the density matrix at thermal equilibrium in non-relativistic quantum mechanics (QM) with many degrees of freedom, in the grand canonical formulation is introduced. In QM, Hamiltonians H(p,q) can be also expressed in terms of creation and annihilation operators, a method adapted to the study of perturbed harmonic oscillators. In the holomorphic formalism, quantum operators act by multiplication and differentiation on a vector space of analytic functions. Alternatively, they can also be represented by kernels, functions of complex variables that correspond in the classical limit to a complex parametrization of phase space. The formalism is adapted to the description of many-body boson systems. To this formalism corresponds a path integral representation of the density matrix at thermal equilibrium, where paths belong to complex spaces, instead of the more usual position–momentum phase space. A parallel formalism can be set up to describe systems with many fermion degrees of freedom, with Grassmann variables replacing complex variables. Both formalisms can be generalized to quantum gases of Bose and Fermi particles in the grand canonical formulation. Field integral representations of the corresponding quantum partition functions are derived.
We exploit the grassmannian nature of the variables involved in the path integral expression of the grand canonical partition function for self--interacting fermionic models to show, in one-space dimension, a general relation among the terms of it expansion in the high temperature limit and a combination of co-factors of a suitable matrix with commuting entries. As an application, we apply this framework to calculate the exact coefficients, up to order β^3, of the expansion of the grand canonical partition function for the Hubbard model in d=(1+1) in the high temperature limit. The results are valid for any set of parameters that characterize the model.
We present a unified formulation for quantum statistical physics based on the representation of the density matrix as a functional integral. For quantum statistical (thermal) field theory, the stochastic variable of the statistical theory is a boundary field configuration. We explore the properties of an effective theory for such boundary configurations and apply it to the computation of the partition function of an interacting one-dimensional quantum-mechanical system at finite temperature. Plots of free energy and specific heat show excellent agreement with more involved semiclassical results. The method of calculation provides an alternative to the usual sum over periodic trajectories: it sums over paths with coincident end points and includes nonvanishing boundary terms. An appropriately modified expansion into modified Matsubara modes is presented.