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Journal of the Physical Society of Japan

Proof of the Closed-Form Solution to the Mori Formula for Transport Coefficients

Isao Sawada

Published Feb 15, 1996• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Three decades ago, the quantum Langevin-like equation (Mori formula) was used to reformulate the linear response theory (Kubo formula) in the continued fraction formalism. Since then, the Mori formula has often been used to evaluate transport coefficients, but only within the Born approximation. Very recently, a rigorous closed-form solution to the Mori formula for transport coefficients has been obtained. In the present study, we prove the equivalence of the closed-form solution to the Mori formula and the Kubo formula using the general relations between correlation functions and then comment on the Born approximation.

DOI
10.1143/jpsj.65.342

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Three decades ago, the quantum Langevin-like equation (Mori formula) was used to reformulate the linear response theory (Kubo formula) in the continued fraction formalism. Since then, the Mori formula has often been used to evaluate transport coefficients, but only within the Born approximation. Very recently, a rigorous closed-form solution to the Mori formula for transport coefficients has been obtained. In the present study, we prove the equivalence of the closed-form solution to the Mori formula and the Kubo formula using the general relations between correlation functions and then comment on the Born approximation.
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We first review the problem of a rigorous justification of Kubo’s formula for transport coefficients in gapped extended Hamiltonian quantum systems at zero temperature. In particular, the theoretical understanding of the quantum Hall effect rests on the validity of Kubo’s formula for such systems, a connection that we review briefly as well. We then highlight an approach to linear response theory based on non-equilibrium almost-stationary states (NEASS) and on a corresponding adiabatic theorem for such systems that was recently proposed and worked out by one of us in [51] for interacting fermionic systems on finite lattices. In the second part of our paper, we show how to lift the results of [51] to infinite systems by taking a thermodynamic limit.
Diffusion is an ubiquitous phenomenon. It is a widespread belief that as long as the area under a current autocorrelation function converges in time, the corresponding spatiotemporal density dynamics should be diffusive. This may be viewed as a result of the combination of linear response theory with the Einstein relation. However, attempts to derive this statement from first principles are notoriously challenging. We first present a counterexample by constructing a correlation functions of some density wave, such that the area under the corresponding current autocorrelation function converges, but the dynamics do not obey a diffusion equation. Then we will introduce a method based on the recursion method and the Mori memory formalism, that may help to actually identify diffusion. For a decisive answer, one would have to know infinitely many so called Lanczos coefficients, which is unattainable in most cases. However, in the examples examined in this paper, we find that the practically computable number of Lanczos coefficients suffices for a strong guess.