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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Theory of inhomogeneous quantum systems. III. Variational wave functions for Fermi fluids

E. Krotscheck

Published Apr 1, 1985• 40 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We develop a general variational theory for inhomogeneous Fermi systems such as the electron gas in a metal surface, the surface of liquid $^{3}\mathrm{He}$, or simple models of heavy nuclei. The ground-state wave function is expressed in terms of two-body correlations, a one-body attenuation factor, and a model-system Slater determinant. Massive partial summations of cluster expansions are performed by means of Born-Green-Yvon and hypernetted-chain techniques. An optimal single-particle basis is generated by a generalized Hartree-Fock equation in which the two-body correlations screen the bare interparticle interaction. The optimization of the pair correlations leads to a state-averaged random-phase-approximation equation and a strictly microscopic determination of the particle-hole interaction.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.31.4267

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We develop a general variational theory for inhomogeneous Fermi systems such as the electron gas in a metal surface, the surface of liquid 3He^{3}\mathrm{He}3He, or simple models of heavy nuclei. The ground-state wave function is expressed in terms of two-body correlations, a one-body attenuation factor, and a model-system Slater determinant. Massive partial summations of cluster expansions are performed by means of Born-Green-Yvon and hypernetted-chain techniques. An optimal single-particle basis is generated by a generalized Hartree-Fock equation in which the two-body correlations screen the bare interparticle interaction. The optimization of the pair correlations leads to a state-averaged random-phase-approximation equation and a strictly microscopic determination of the particle-hole interaction.
"A theory is developed to allow the systematic calculation of the properties of quantum fluids given the microscopic two-body potential. Physical arguments are used to construct a correlation operator that approximately transforms the states of a non-interacting system into the corresponding states of the interacting-system. The theory can be regarded as a microscopic realization of Landau's assumption of a one-to-one correspondence between the non-interacting and interacting states. It is variational since the correlation operator is determined by minimizing E(p) the expectation value of the ground-state energy. We first give a survey of various other many-body theories including the simpler Jastrow variational method. Differential equations are derived to calculate the correlation operator and the related Jastrow correlation"" function. A comparison of results in several Bose systems with various methods is given. The Fermi hypernetted chain integral equations are generalized to allow the calculation of E(p) in Fermi systems, using the correlation operator wave function. The method is applied to liquid 3He and the v2-model of nuclear matter. In 3He the correlation operator gives results in much closer agreement with experiment than that with the Jastrow wave function. A new set of hypernetted chain equations are then derived to allow the calculation of the excited st;ate energies in Bose systems. The theory is then applied to the calculation of the single quasi-particle excitation spectrum of liquid 4He. The spectrum is found to be a stringent test on the form of the correlation operator, deficiencies in the correlation operator giving corresponding errors in the spectrum. Good results are obtained for the density dependence of the roton energy. A variational principle for the free energy is used to generalize the correlation operator technique to finite temperatures. Results are given for the finite temperature properties of the v8-model of nuclear matter."
In this second work in a series of papers the coupled-cluster or exp(S)\mathrm{exp}(S)exp(S) formalism is applied to the problem of ground-state correlations in the one-component Fermi plasma. The main approximation employed is the so-called SUB2 approximation for the two-body subsystem correlation operator S2{S}_{2}S2​ which provides a measure of the two-particle---two-hole component in the true ground-state wave function, and in which the coupling to larger subsystems is neglected. The SUB2 equations for Fermi systems are brought into tractable form by a "state-averaging" procedure which we develop by analogy with the comparable Bose equations, and which is shown by comparison with earlier exact results to be accurate in the metallic density regime at about the 1% level. Our final results for metallic densities include the completely integrated and self-consistent effects of the terms which by themselves generate (i) the random-phase approximation (RPA) and its associated exact long-range screening effects, (ii) the extra random-phase approximation exchange terms necessary to keep the RPA explicitly antisymmetric, (iii) the self-consistent particle-particle ladders (LAD) that describe two-particle scattering within the many-body medium and which describe the exact short-range behavior, (iv) a class of particle-hole ladder terms, and (v) the self-consistent hole-potential terms. Particular attention is paid to the important effects caused by the interference at intermediate separations of the long-range RPA and the short-range LAD effects. By comparison with recent and essentially exact stochastic simulations of the many-body Schr\"odinger equation, our results are seen to be accurate to about 1% for metallic densities, and hence to provide what is probably the currently best microscopic description available for this system. We show also that even in the low-density limit the SUB2 approximation provides a good "translationally-invariant-solid" description of both charged Fermi and Bose systems in this exact Wigner crystal regime.
We develop a variational theory for the determination of the ground-state properties of an inhomogeneous Bose fluid at zero temperature. Euler-Lagrange equations are derived for the one- and two-body correlations, and systematic approximation methods are physically motivated. It is shown that the optimized variational method provides a self-consistent approximate summation of ladder and ring diagrams. Numerical applications are presented for the density profile, distribution functions, energy, and chemical potential of films of 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He atoms. Both the bulk and surface energies are calculated and found to be in fair agreement with experiments.
The variational method for calculating energy of quantum fluids, and its applications to the Bose liquid 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He, Fermi neutron gas, and liquid 3He^{3}\mathrm{He}3He are discussed. The correlation functions are parametrized by their healing distance, and can depend on the states occupied by the correlated particles in the model wave function. They are calculated by constrained variation of the lowest-order contributions. The healing distance has a prescribed value in lowest-order calculations, whereas it is sufficiently large in hopefully exact energy calculations. The many-body cluster contributions in Bose fluids are summed with successive approximations of an integral equation due to van Leeuwen et al. A simple diagrammatic cluster expansion is presented for Fermi liquids, and its direct diagrams are summed with the integral equation. The contribution of exchange diagrams is shown to decrease rapidly with the number of exchanges, and their sums are truncated after the energy has converged to within a few percent.
The general form of the energy of the ground state of a many-fermion system is shown to be exactly of the form proposed by Brueckner and Bethe, without approximation. In a variational treatment, if the trial wave function is picked containing only pair correlations, together with all possible unlinked pairs, it is described by a two-body excitation matrix 〈m1m2∣A∣p1p2〉〈{m}_{1}{m}_{2}|A|{p}_{1}{p}_{2}〉〈m1​m2​∣A∣p1​p2​〉. Variation of this matrix in the Ritz-Rayleigh principle yields a set of integral equations of the scattering type for the matrix AAA. Hole-state energies are given self-consistently in terms of the matrix AAA, but particle-state energies are Hartree-Fock energies. This may be corrected for by widely enlarging the class of terms admitted into the wave function. If the approximation is then made of omitting a class of terms, defined as cross-linked clusters in $〈\ensuremath{\psi}|H|\ensuremath{\psi}〉$, the particle-state energies are easily renormalized. Variation then leads to an infinite hierarchy of integral equations.
Variational calculations of the ground-state energy of hard-sphere, helium-4, Coulomb, and nuclear Yukawa fluids are carried out. The long-range part v(r>d)v(r>d)v(r>d) and a constant part $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ at r<dr<dr<d of the bare interaction are assumed to contribute to the average field. The correlation function f(r)f(r)f(r) is obtained by minimizing the two-body cluster contribution due to the remainder interaction, and the distance ddd is determined by minimizing the energy as calculated with the hierarchy of hypernetted-chain-type equations. The convergence of two- and three-particle distribution functions given by these equations is discussed. The method is shown to be exact in the low-density limit, and the comparison of the present results with the available exact (standard) results in the high-density limit (region) verifies its accuracy over the entire density range. It is shown that the variationally obtained value of ddd in the high-density Coulomb fluid can be understood with conventional meanfield theory. A solidification criterion is obtained by studying the energies in liquid and solid phases with the present f(r)f(r)f(r). This criterion explains the solidification of the Coulomb, hard-sphere, and helium systems, and the inability of the nuclear Yukawa system to solidify. The variational method in the form presented here could be very useful for studying complicated quantum systems.