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Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A Mathematical and Physical Sciences

On the statistical method in nuclear theory

Klaus Fuchs

Published Mar 8, 1940• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The calculation of the energies of heavy nuclei presents a many-body problem with a very large number of particles. For the treatment of this problem the statistical method seems to be indispensable. But the statistical method, as applied hitherto in nuclear physics, has some serious drawbacks. It proceeds from the Hartree approximation, each particle being supposed to move in the average field of the other particles. With this approximation the total wave function can be represented by a determinant of independent wave functions. The calculation of the energy then leads to expressions containing the wave functions only in the form of densities or mixed densities ρ(r) = Σiϕ*i (r) ϕi(r); ρ(r, r') = Σ i+jϕ*i (r) ϕ*j (r') ϕi(r') ϕj(r), (1.1) where the summation extends over all independent wave functions.

DOI
10.1098/rspa.1940.0036

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Abstract The calculation of the energies of heavy nuclei presents a many-body problem with a very large number of particles. For the treatment of this problem the statistical method seems to be indispensable. But the statistical method, as applied hitherto in nuclear physics, has some serious drawbacks. It proceeds from the Hartree approximation, each particle being supposed to move in the average field of the other particles. With this approximation the total wave function can be represented by a determinant of independent wave functions. The calculation of the energy then leads to expressions containing the wave functions only in the form of densities or mixed densities ρ(r) = Σiϕi (r) ϕi(r); ρ(r, r') = Σ i+jϕi (r) ϕ*j (r') ϕi(r') ϕj(r), (1.1) where the summation extends over all independent wave functions.
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.
A system of NNN antisymmetric particles, moving under the influence of a fixed potential and their mutual many-particle interactions, is investigated in the ordinary Hartree-Fock scheme, having the total wave function approximated by a single Slater determinant. It is shown that all the density matrices of various orders, the wave function, and the entire physical situation depends only on a fundamental invariant $\ensuremath{\rho}({x}_{1}, {x}_{2})$, which is identical with the first-order density matrix. The Hartree-Fock equations are expressed in terms of this quantity.The Hartree-Fock equations are also solved by expanding the eigenfunctions in a given complete set, and applications to the MO-LCAO theory of the electronic structure of molecules, and crystals are given. It is shown that, in this scheme, the entire physical situation depends on a charge- and bond-order matrix $R(\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\mu})$ with respect to the ordinary atomic spin-orbitals involved. The Hartree-Fock equations for this matrix are investigated.Finally, the ionized and excited states are investigated, and it is shown that the Hartree-Fock scheme has a high degree of physical visuality also in case of many-particle interactions. The excitation energy of the system is the difference (${{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{j}}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{i}$) between two "spin-orbital energies," being eigenvalues to the effective Hamiltonians associated with the two states under consideration.
Abstract The mean-field approximation based on effective interactions or density functionals plays a pivotal role in the description of finite quantum many-body systems that are too large to be treated by ab initio methods. Some examples are strongly interacting medium and heavy mass atomic nuclei and mesoscopic condensed matter systems. In this approach, the linear Schrödinger equation for the exact many-body wave function is mapped onto a non-linear one-body potential problem. This approximation, not only provides computationally very simple solutions even for systems with many particles, but due to the non-linearity, it also allows for obtaining solutions that break essential symmetries of the system, often connected with phase transitions. In this way, additional correlations are subsumed in the system. However, the mean-field approach suffers from the drawback that the corresponding wave functions do not have sharp quantum numbers and, therefore, many results cannot be compared directly with experimental data. In this article, we discuss general group-theory techniques to restore the broken symmetries, and provide detailed expressions on the restoration of translational, rotational, spin, isospin, parity and gauge symmetries, where the latter corresponds to the restoration of the particle number. In order to avoid the numerical complexity of exact projection techniques, various approximation methods available in the literature are examined. Applications of the projection methods are presented for simple nuclear models, realistic calculations in relatively small configuration spaces, nuclear energy density functional (EDF) theory, as well as in other mesoscopic systems. We also discuss applications of projection techniques to quantum statistics in order to treat the averaging over restricted ensembles with fixed quantum numbers. Further, unresolved problems in the application of the symmetry restoration methods to the EDF theories are highlighted in the present work.
The mean-field approximation based on effective interactions or density functionals plays a pivotal role in the description of finite quantum many-body systems that are too large to be treated by ab initio methods. Some examples are strongly interacting medium and heavy mass atomic nuclei and mesoscopic condensed matter systems. In this approach, the linear Schrodinger equation for the exact many-body wave function is mapped onto a non-linear density-dependent one-body potential problem. This approximation, not only provides computationally very simple solutions even for systems with many particles, but due to the non-linearity, it also allows for obtaining solutions that break essential symmetries of the system, often connected with phase transitions. In this way, additional correlations are subsumed in the system. However, the mean-field approach suffers from the drawback that the corresponding wave functions do not have sharp quantum numbers and, therefore, many results cannot be compared directly with experimental data. In this article, we discuss general group-theory techniques to restore the broken symmetries, and provide detailed expressions on the restoration of translational, rotational, spin, isospin, parity and gauge symmetries, where the latter corresponds to the restoration of the particle number. In order to avoid the numerical complexity of exact projection techniques, various approximation methods available in the literature are examined. Applications of the projection methods are presented for simple nuclear models, realistic calculations in relatively small configuration spaces, nuclear energy density functional theory, as well as in other mesoscopic systems. We also discuss applications of projection techniques to quantum statistics in order to treat the averaging over restricted ensembles with fixed quantum numbers. Further, unresolved problems in the application of the symmetry restoration methods to the energy density functional theories are highlighted in the present work.