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The Journal of Chemical Physics

Quantum chemistry in Fock space. I. The universal wave and energy operators

Werner Kutzelnigg

Published Sep 15, 1982• 319 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Fock space Hamiltonian H has a simpler structure than its projection Hn to n-particle Hilbert space. It is therefore recommended to diagonalize H—to the extent that this is possible—before one specifies n. Diagonalization of H is possible if one defines the diagonal and nondiagonal parts of an operator appropriately. It is shown that the diagonalized Fock space Hamiltonian L, called an energy operator, contains all information about the eigenvalues of H in a simply coded form. For a spinfree Hamiltonian, spin can be completely eliminated and all interesting quantities are expressible in terms of spinfree excitation operators (generators of the unitary group). The construction of the wave operator W and the energy operator L is formulated in terms of perturbation theory both in the strictly degenerate and the quasidegenerate version. Three variants are discussed that differ in the normalization of W, namely, a intermediate normalization, b and c unitary normalization with two additional conditions, b: WD=WD+, c:σD=(ln W)D=0. The transformation of operator products to normal product form is achieved by means of a generalization of Wick’s theorem to spinfree quantum chemistry. The contributions to the various orders of L, W, and σ are illustrated by means of diagrams. Only variant c guarantees a connected-diagram expansion of the Fock space energy operator L. None of the three variants satisfies a generalization of the Wigner (2n+1) rule, but with a slight change in the normalization from b to b′ or c to c′ (that does, in the case of c′, not affect the connectedness of the diagram expansion) L(2n) and L(2n+1) are expressible in terms of the W(k), k⩽n. A generalization of the variation principle for the Fock space energy operator is given and its consequences are discussed. Generalized Fock space Brillouin conditions are derived and a variational scheme for the construction of the energy operator is proposed. We finally compare the present Fock space approach with the traditional degenerate perturbation theory in n-particle Hilbert space. If the diagonal part ΩD of an operator Ω is defined in the spirit of the theory of the universal wave and energy operators, then the two approaches lead to the same results (for the same normalization), but the Fock space approach looks simpler and more transparent.

DOI
10.1063/1.444231

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Journal of Mathematical Physics•Apr 1, 1990•3 citations
The Fock space Hamiltonian H has a simpler structure than its projection Hn to n-particle Hilbert space. It is therefore recommended to diagonalize H—to the extent that this is possible—before one specifies n. Diagonalization of H is possible if one defines the diagonal and nondiagonal parts of an operator appropriately. It is shown that the diagonalized Fock space Hamiltonian L, called an energy operator, contains all information about the eigenvalues of H in a simply coded form. For a spinfree Hamiltonian, spin can be completely eliminated and all interesting quantities are expressible in terms of spinfree excitation operators (generators of the unitary group). The construction of the wave operator W and the energy operator L is formulated in terms of perturbation theory both in the strictly degenerate and the quasidegenerate version. Three variants are discussed that differ in the normalization of W, namely, a intermediate normalization, b and c unitary normalization with two additional conditions, b: WD=WD+, c:σD=(ln W)D=0. The transformation of operator products to normal product form is achieved by means of a generalization of Wick’s theorem to spinfree quantum chemistry. The contributions to the various orders of L, W, and σ are illustrated by means of diagrams. Only variant c guarantees a connected-diagram expansion of the Fock space energy operator L. None of the three variants satisfies a generalization of the Wigner (2n+1) rule, but with a slight change in the normalization from b to b′ or c to c′ (that does, in the case of c′, not affect the connectedness of the diagram expansion) L(2n) and L(2n+1) are expressible in terms of the W(k), k⩽n. A generalization of the variation principle for the Fock space energy operator is given and its consequences are discussed. Generalized Fock space Brillouin conditions are derived and a variational scheme for the construction of the energy operator is proposed. We finally compare the present Fock space approach with the traditional degenerate perturbation theory in n-particle Hilbert space. If the diagonal part ΩD of an operator Ω is defined in the spirit of the theory of the universal wave and energy operators, then the two approaches lead to the same results (for the same normalization), but the Fock space approach looks simpler and more transparent.
The concept of an effective Hamiltonian in Fock space is introduced. It is based on the division of the entire one-particle space into subspaces of ‘‘active’’ and ‘‘inactive’’ orbitals. The effective Fock space Hamiltonian has—for active model states—the same eigenvalues as the full Hamiltonian. The theory outlined in this context differs from that of paper I mainly in a different definition of the ‘‘diagonal part’’ of an operator, and in the fact that the ‘‘quasidegenerate case’’ applies throughout. The separation theorem, and as a consequence the connected diagram theorem, is shown to hold, in a more limited sense though, even for those normalizations where it did not in the context of universal wave and energy operators. Unlike in the theory of the ‘‘universal’’ operators of paper I the Fock space and n-particle Hilbert space approaches with analogous normalizations are no longer equivalent. In particular, the Primas normalization with a fully Lie-algebraic structure does not lead to a connected diagram expansion if it is formulated in n-particle Hilbert space, only so in a Fock space formulation. In n-particle Hilbert space with the present definition of the diagonal part of an operator the normalizations b (‘‘canonical’’) and c (‘‘Primas’’) happen to agree. As an alternative to the construction of the wave and energy operator W and L by perturbation theory the nonperturbative approach is presented as a generalization of the coupled-cluster method, in detail both in the intermediate and in the unitary normalization. In the unitary variant only a linear system for σ (the logarithm of the wave operator) has to be solved in order to get L correct through fifth order in perturbation theory with important contributions of higher orders included. A generalization of the Hartree–Fock method to Fock space theory is outlined, which guarantees stationarity of all (active) eigenstates with respect to one-particle transformations. A generalized electron pair theory is also defined. An analysis of the necessary computational steps shows that the nonperturbative approaches do not require significantly more computational effort than perturbation theory to the corresponding order. As a numerical example the H2 molecule in a small basis is discussed.
A particle-hole formalism is defined which is consistent with the tensor notation (and the index pairing) of the generators of the unitary group and their many-particle generalization. The corresponding generalized Wick theorem is formulated. The classification of basis operators as ‘‘closed,’’ ‘‘open,’’ ‘‘closed from above,’’ and ‘‘closed from below’’ given previously is extended to the present context. Both the perturbative and nonperturbative construction of effective Fock space Hamiltonians is discussed in the particle-hole formalism, especially for the case that the ‘‘physical vacuum’’ satisfies a Hartree–Fock condition. For the calculations of the correlation energy of the physical vacuum Cizek’s CP-MET is compared formally with the unitary variant, the UNICEP (unitary coupled electron pair) approximation. A simple derivation of Goldstone’s ‘‘linked-cluster expansion’’ is also given.
We generalize here the formalism of the preceeding paper to encompass the case of the general incomplete model space. The classification of operators as diagonal or nondiagonal depends in this case upon the specific m-valence model space. It is stressed that even then one has to work in Fock space in order to get connected-diagram expansions, since connectedness is a Fock space property. Two choices of separable normalization of the wave operator W leading to a connected Heff are discussed. It is shown that the intermediate normalization is not separable in general and hence not compatible with a connected-diagram expansion. We also discuss how to generate ‘‘subduced’’ incomplete model spaces of lower particle rank such that Heff remains a valid effective Hamiltonian for these subduced model spaces as well. We discuss the nature of the various disconnected diagrams encountered in many-body formalisms and point out which of these are really worth worrying about. We finally comment on the question of the separability of the wave function into proper fragments.
In the present paper we propose to develop a quantum-mechanical scheme in Fock space that would describe interactions that take place through the formation of a compound particle. The discussion will be restricted to a dynamical system representing a single-level scattering process. The state of this dynamical system can be found in two stages: initial particles and compound nucleus. The dynamical behavior of this state will be given in terms of a hamiltonian (that has no classical analog) which will be derived from the boundary conditions satisfied by the state. The representation of the dynamical variables, associated with the two stages of the state, will be discussed, and a complete set of constants of motion of our dynamical system will be given. The expansion of an arbitarary Fock state in terms of the simultaneous eigenstates of this complete set of constants of motion, leads to the generalized Hankel transforms, used in a preceding article for the determination of the time dependent states for scattering and disintegration. In a representation in which the constants of motion are diagonal, the operator representing the relative kinetic energy of the two initial particles will be nondiagonal, particularly in the neighborhood of the resonance energy. The unitary matrix connecting any initial Fock state with the corresponding state at time ttt will be obtained, and with its help the time-dependent behavior of the Heisenberg dynamical variables of our dynamical system can be derived.
A detailed and systematic presentation of algebraic and diagrammatic techniques introduced in paper I [L. Z. Stolarczyk and H. J. Monkhorst, Phys. Rev. A 32, 725 (1985)] is given. Performing a similarity transformation of an operator in Fock space, e.g., a Hamiltonian in the generalized coupled-cluster method (see paper I), leads to lengthy algebraic formulas for the linear parameters (amplitudes) of the transformed operator. These formulas can be expressed in a compact form by means of the so-called reduced diagrams. Precise rules are given for constructing such diagrams (related to the so-called directed graphs of the graph theory) and the algebraic expressions corresponding to them. In particular, rules for generating a connected-diagram expansion of the amplitudes of the transformed operator are formulated. Several examples illustrating the use of this diagrammatic-algebraic approach are considered.
The unitary matrix that brings a Hermitian H into block-diagonal form can be uniquely determined under very simple and transparent conditions. Int his work the block-diagonalization problem is investigated in the framework of the second quantization formalism. Starting with an operator Ḩ which in any n-particle Fock space has a well-defined matrix representation an attemt was made to answer the question whether the transformation matrices T which can be separately given in the various n-particle spaces can be considered matrix representations of the same operator. T̂. Interestingly, the very important result was reached that the block-diagonalization operator T̂ exists and is unique. As a particular example, attention was concentrated on the case of an operator Ĥ given by a one-particle operator. In this case the block-diagonalization operator can be constructed and given in explicit from. This approach is applied to the theory of Green’s functions where the block-diagonalization of the Hamiltonian has interesting consequences that are illustrated in some details.