Boson and fermion many-body assemblies: fingerprints of excitations in the ground-state wave functions, with examples of superfluid 4He and the homogeneous correlated electron liquid
After a brief summary of some basic properties of ideal gases of bosons and of fermions, two many-body Hamiltonians are cited for which ground-state wave functions allow the generation of excited states. Because of the complexity of ground-state many-body wave functions, we then consider properties of reduced density matrices, and in particular, the diagonal element of the second-order density matrix. For both the homogeneous correlated electron liquid and for an assembly of charged bosons, the ground-state pair correlation function g(r) has fingerprints of the zero-point energy of the plasmon modes. These affect crucially the static structure factor, S(k), in the long wavelength limit. This is best understood by means of the Ornstein–Zernike direct correlation function c(r), which plays an important role throughout this article. Turning from such charged liquids, both boson and fermion, to superfluid 4He, the elevated temperature (T) structure factor S(k, T) is related, albeit approximately, to its zero-temperature counterpart, via the velocity of sound, reflecting the collective phonon excitations and the superfluid density. Finally, some future directions are pointed.
After a brief summary of some basic properties of ideal gases of bosons and of fermions, two many-body Hamiltonians are cited for which ground-state wave functions allow the generation of excited states. Because of the complexity of ground-state many-body wave functions, we then consider properties of reduced density matrices, and in particular, the diagonal element of the second-order density matrix. For both the homogeneous correlated electron liquid and for an assembly of charged bosons, the ground-state pair correlation function g(r) has fingerprints of the zero-point energy of the plasmon modes. These affect crucially the static structure factor, S(k), in the long wavelength limit. This is best understood by means of the Ornstein–Zernike direct correlation function c(r), which plays an important role throughout this article. Turning from such charged liquids, both boson and fermion, to superfluid 4He, the elevated temperature (T) structure factor S(k, T) is related, albeit approximately, to its zero-temperature counterpart, via the velocity of sound, reflecting the collective phonon excitations and the superfluid density. Finally, some future directions are pointed.
After a brief summary of some basic properties of ideal gases of bosons and of fermions, two many-body Hamiltonians are cited for which ground-state wave functions allow the generation of excited states. But because of the complexity of ground-state many-body wave functions, we then consider properties of reduced density matrices, and in particular, the diagonal element of the second-order density matrix. For both the homogeneous correlated electron liquid and for an assembly of charged bosons, the ground-state pair correlation function g(r) has fingerprints of the zero-point energy of the plasmon modes. These affect crucially the static structure factor S(k), in the long wavelength limit. This is best understood by means of the Ornstein-Zernike direct correlation function c(r), which plays an important role throughout this article. Turning from such charged liquids, both boson and fermion, to superfluid 4 He, the elevated temperature (T) structure factor S(k, T) is related, albeit approximately, to its zero-temperature counterpart, via the velocity of sound, reflecting the collective phonon excitations, and the superfluid density. Finally some future directions are pointed.
In this paper we suggest a new ground-state wave function and low-temperature density matrix for a strongly interacting system of bosons. Our basic assumption is that the system can support long-wavelength phonons and that these can propagate independently of any other mode of motion. We therefore write the ground-state function as the product of two factors. One factor arises from the zero-point motion of the phonons, and we show that it has the form ${\ensuremath{\Pi}}_{i<j}f({r}_{\mathrm{ij}})$, where lnf(r) has an infinite range. The other factor is assumed to have this same form but with lnf(r) of finite range; it takes into account the short-range correlations arising from the strong repulsive part of the interparticle potential. The function we have chosen to represent the short-range correlations is not new; functions of this kind were first introduced by Bijl and later by Jastrow. At finite temperatures we use a density matrix for an ensemble of excited phonon states. We find that for small wave vectors k, the structure factor S(k) is equal to $\frac{\ensuremath{\hbar}k}{2mc}$, a result that was first derived by Feynman. At a finite temperature T, S(k) tends to the constant value mc2kBT, where m is the mass of the particles and c the velocity of propagation of the phonons. The momentum distribution nk has a ${k}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ singularity at absolute zero and a stronger, ${k}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ singularity at finite temperatures. The small-k behavior of both S(k) and nk is completely controlled by the correlations introduced by the phonons. Both the ground-state function and the density matrix imply that there is a finite fraction of particles in the zero-momentum state in three dimensions; this fraction does not seem to be appreciably affected by the infinite-range correlations introduced by the phonons. We find, however, that these correlations imply that a one-dimensional Bose system does not exhibit Bose-Einstein condensation at any temperature, while a two-dimensional system exhibits Bose-Einstein condensation only at absolute zero.
Abstract In this chapter we introduce some basic concepts of superfluid 4He that we will draw on in Chapters 8-12. Liquid 4 He has a long and rich history and there are many concepts that are implicit in the field today. We begin with a sketch of the unique mass and heat flow character of superfluid 4He. The assumptions of the two-fluid model used successfully to describe these properties are noted in §7.1. We introduce Bose-Einstein condensation in a Bose gas and the extension of this to interacting superfluid 4 He in §7.2. This leads naturally to the one-body density matrix which is the intermediate scattering function in the impulse approximation,We introduce a number of basic properties such as the static structure factor, the pair correlation function, and the momentum distribution which can be calculated from first principles using Monte Carlo and path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) methods. We conclude by noting the two current descriptions of the characteristic excitation in superfluid 4He. The first is a density excitation, based on the Landau and Feynman view, with suitable modifications at higher Q to take account of correlations among atoms. In the second, the density excitation is separated into a part due to the excitation of single particles out of the condensate to states above the condensate and a part due to regular density excitations involving only states above the condensate. In the latter picture the condensate appears explicitly in S(Q, ω).
A many-body wavefunction is constructed by antisymmetrization, with respect to the electron variables, of a product of 4He-atom wavefunctions, each in its individual ground state. This wavefunction is shown to have the following properties: (1) The pair distribution function D(Rij) vanishes at zero separation Rij = 0; part of the mutual repulsion of 4He atoms is built into the wavefunction as a result of the exclusion principle acting between the electron shells on different atoms. (2) Neither the nuclei nor the whole atoms undergo Bose condensation, but there is a ``Fermi condensation'' similar to that shown by Yang to characterize superconductivity, arising from off-diagonal long-range order of the appropriate reduced density matrix.
Green's functions of phonons for many-boson systems at high density are obtained from the phonon Hamiltonian given in a previous paper on the basis of the coherent-state representation. A dispersion equation derived from these Green's functions gives rise to the excitation spectrum leading to the Feynman energy in the low-momentum limit. It is shown that the dynamic structure function obtained here satisfies the sum rules in the low-momentum limit. As an illustrative example, the one-dimensional Lieb-Liniger model is considered. The relationships to the previous theories, in particular, to the velocity field approach of Yamasaki, Kebukawa and Sunakawa and to our density and phase operator approach are elucidated by the use of a unitary transformation. Discussion will be made on the D-wave portion of the roton-roton interaction in relation to the resonance state of roton pair studied in one of our previous papers. Finally, it is pointed out that the zeroth Fourier transform of the phase operator is related to the superfluid velocity in the two-fluid theory of liquid helium II.
In no wave function of the type (1) [product of single determinants for each spin] is there a statistical correlation between the positions of the electrons with antiparallel spin. The purpose of the aforementioned generalization of (1) is to allow for such correlations. This will lead to an improvement of the wave function and, therefore, to a lowering of the energy value. E. Wigner, Phys. Rev. 46, 1002 (1934) Summary Although the exact many-body wavefunction cannot be written down in general, we do know of some of its properties. For example, there are differences between the wavefunctions of insulators and metals and the cusp condition gives the behavior as any two charges approach each other. In this chapter we also discuss approximate wavefunctions, ways to judge their accuracy and how to include electronic correlation. Examples of many-body wavefunctions are the Slater–Jastrow (pair product) wavefunction and its generalization to pairing and backflow wavefunctions. In other places in this book, we argue that it is not necessary to look at the many-body wavefunctions explicitly because they are unwieldy; the one- and two-body correlation functions discussed in Ch. 5 are sufficient to determine the energy and give information on the excitation spectra. However, these correlation functions do not always contain all information of interest. In principle, the ground-state energy of a many-electron system is a functional of the density, but the very derivation of the theorem invokes the many-body wavefunction, as expressed explicitly in Eq. (4.16). The effects of antisymmetry are manifest in the correlation functions, but antisymmetry is most simply viewed as a property of the wavefunction; electronic correlation is fundamentally a result of properties of the many-body wavefunction. Studying many-body wavefunctions provides a very useful, different point of view of many-body physics from the approaches based on correlation functions. Many of the most important discoveries in physics have come about by understanding the nature of wavefunctions, such as the Laughlin wavefunction for the fractional quantum Hall effect, the BCS wavefunction for superconductors, p-wave pairing in superfluid 3 He, and the Heitler– London approach for molecular binding. The role of Berry's phases has brought out the importance of the phase of the wavefunction in determining properties of quantum systems. This has led to new understanding of the classification of insulators, metals, superconductors, vortices, and other states of condensed matter.