A theory is formulated to derive an effective interaction in nuclei in the framework of the unitarymodel-operator approach.A unitary operator is introduced to describe two-body correlations, and it is determined from the condition that the effective interaction should be decoupled between the lowmomentum model space and the high-momentum space.The unitary-transformed Hamiltonian is represented in a cluster expansion form.The one-and two-body cluster terms are mainly discussed.The theory is applied to the calculation of the energies of the ground-and one-body states with the Reid soft core potential.A large gain of the energy has been obtained for the ground state in comparison with the result of the usual G-matrix theory.As for the one-body energies obtained, agreement with the experimental values is fairly good.Although the discrepancies with the experiments still remain at the 1O~ 15 % level, the present approach shows to have some desirable features compared with the nuclear many-body theories proposed so far. § 1. IntroductionA fundamental problem in nuclear physics is to clarify the properties of nuclei in terms of the interaction among their constituent particles.Although there have been many theories or approaches, we have not yet reached the goal of reproducing successfully the experimental data.The investigation of nuclear properties, in the usual nonrelativistic approach, proceeds in two steps: The first one is to determine the interaction among nucleons, and the second is to solve the many-body SchrOdinger equation.Concerning the nucleon-nucleon force, it seems that the phenomenological potential, such as the Reid potential, would be incomplete and one should wait until quark dynamics, probably quantum chromodynamics (QCD), solves finally the problem o~ nuclear force.It is of no doubt that in order to fit the experiments we need more accurate knowledge on the nuclear force including the threebody force.However, if we want to reach the goal, we need also a good many-body theory.Regardless of the accuracy of the nuclear force, we shall not be able to solve the problem unless we have a way of constructing an accurate solution for a many-body system.We believe that many-body theory should share the responsibility for the discrepancy between theory and experiment.It will be sure that nuclear many-body theory is still to be improved.Among many theories for nuclear many-body problem, the most widely applied method is, needless to say, the linked-diagram perturbation theory.This approach may also be referred to as the folded-diagram theory based on the G-matrix interaction especially due 'to Brandow 1l and Kuo et al. 2l An outstanding problem in this approach is the convergence of the perturbation expansion.Since Schucan and Weidenmliller 3 ) pointed out the divergence of the perturbation expansion due to the presence of intruder states, this difficulty has long been a serious problem.Present status of this problem is
The method of correlated basis functions provides a means of systematically exploiting our intuitive understanding of real physical systems. Here we seek especially to develop a formalism for describing systems of strongly interacting fermions, for example, nuclei and liquid
He3, using a complete set of correlated functions ${\ensuremath{\Psi}}_{\mathrm{m}}=\frac{F{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}{{({\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}, {F}^{2}{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}})}^{\frac{1}{2}}}$.
F is taken as a product of two-body factors, $\ensuremath{\Pi}{i<j}^{}[f({r}_{\mathrm{ij}})]$, the
f(rij) embodying at least the correlations arising from strong short-range repulsions; and ${{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$, a set of independent-particle-model functions which might serve as a basis in the absence of highly singular interactions. The matrix elements
Hmn,
Nmn of the Hamiltonian and identity operators with respect to the correlated basis ${{\ensuremath{\Psi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$ are evaluated by generalization of cluster-expansion techniques developed originally for the calculation of the partition function of a classical imperfect gas and adapted to the quantum-mechanical many-body problem by Iwamoto and Yamada. Contributions to our expansions for the
Hmn are classified according to order of magnitude in the quantity $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}$, where $\ensuremath{\omega}=\ensuremath{\int}({f}^{2}(r)\ensuremath{-}1)d\mathrm{r}$ is a "correlation parameter" and $\ensuremath{\rho}$ the average particle density. To the extent that $|\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}|$ is small, it provides a true expansion parameter. A detailed technical discussion of the cluster expansions is given, with special emphasis on their symmetry properties upon truncation. Although the many-body problem is soluble by simultaneous diagonalization of the matrices (
Hmn) and (
Nmn), it is preferable first to transform to an orthonormal basis of "unperturbed" correlated functions ${{\ensuremath{\Theta}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$ with respect to which the Hamiltonian and identity operators have the matrix representations (
Hmn) and $({N}_{\mathrm{mn}})=({\ensuremath{\delta}}_{\mathrm{mn}})$, and then to attempt the separate diagonalization of (
Hmn). In general, such a transformation is expedited by the L\"owdin procedure carried out to the desired order in $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}$. However, a Schmidt orthogonalization scheme might prove more advantageous in specific cases. Field-theoretic techniques (of both perturbative and nonperturbative nature) may be brought to bear in the diagonalization of (
Hmn). The inverse of the unitary transformation which takes the basis ${{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$ into the basis ${{\ensuremath{\Theta}}_{\mathrm{m}}}$, applied to the given singular Hamiltonian, leads---for any
F in the class considered---to a non-singular "effective Hamiltonian." Following this formal cue, we set out to construct explicitly a second-quantized effective Hamiltonian which generates the same matrix elements, to prescribed order in $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}$, when operating between independent-particle kets of the model occupation-number representation, as does the given Hamiltonian in the configuration-space representation, between the corresponding correlated functions of the L\"owdin basis. The quasiparticles described by this effective Hamiltonian interact via well-behaved two-body, three-body, \ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{},
Q-body, \ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{} potentials, in contrast to the highly singular two-body interactions of the real particles. For small $|\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\omega}|$, the effective two-body forces predominate. An avenue to deeper understanding of the applicability of the nuclear-shell model and the dressed-quasiparticle theory of liquid
He3 has been opened. This article treats only the formalism for a uniform extended medium. Numerical calculations, as well as the extension of the method to finite systems, will follow.
The method of superposition of configurations, which provides a general solution of the quantum-mechanical many-particle problem (for fermions), is reformulated so that equations may be compared with those used in the Brueckner theory. Important differences occur in application to finite or nonuniform systems for which the Hartree-Fock or Brueckner self-consistent orbitals are not plane waves. In such cases nonvanishing single-particle matrix elements occur which cannot be described by the Brueckner formalism based on a two-particle operator. Equations for an effective two-particle operator, equivalent to the variational equations of the method of superposition of configurations, are derived for a basis of Hartree-Fock orbitals. At the expense of making the orbital basis dependent upon the effective two-particle operator, the orbital basis can be determined by a condition which is essentially that of the Brueckner method. This condition removes a class of matrix elements which do not necessarily vanish in the Hartree-Fock basis although they would be neglected to second order in a perturbation calculation starting from the Hartree-Fock wave function. The equations for the effective two-particle operator are formally the same in both cases but lead to different operators because of the different choice of basis. In neither case can the equations be written in terms of products of such operators, a formalism assumed in the Brueckner theory. It is shown that the Brueckner condition is not equivalent to the condition which would determine the best possible orbital basis for the form of wave function implied by the use of an effective operator dependent on two particles only. The argument of the present paper is limited to systems with a finite number of particles, since the variational principle used here is not applicable without modification to systems with an infinite number of particles.
Correlations play a crucial role in the nuclear many-body problem. We give an overview of recent developments in nuclear structure theory aiming at the description of these interaction-induced correlations by unitary transformations. We focus on the Unitary Correlation Operator Method (UCOM), which offers a very intuitive, universal and robust approach for the treatment of short-range correlations. We discuss the UCOM formalism in detail and highlight the connections to other methods for the description of short-range correlations and the construction of effective interactions. In particular, we juxtapose UCOM with the Similarity Renormalization Group (SRG) approach, which implements the unitary transformation of the Hamiltonian through a very flexi-ble flow-equation formulation. The UCOM- and SRG-transformed interactions are compared on the level of matrix elements and in many-body calculations within the no-core shell model and with Hartree-Fock plus perturbation theory for a variety of nuclei and observables. These calcu-lations provide a detailed picture of the similarities and differences as well as the advantages and limitations of unitary transformation methods.
A new theory of treating the ground-state correlations and the correspond-ing renormalization effects is proposed. In the theory, two-particle-two-hole and four-particle-four-hole excitations are taken up as the important parts in the ground-state correlations. The correlated true ground state is given through multiplication of the unitary operator to the Hartree-Fock ground state. The unitary operator is determined from the condition of minimizing the energy of the correlated true ground state. New single-particle operators are defined through the unitary transformation of the Hartree-Fock single-particle operators in the second-quantization formalism. The transformed Hamiltonian represented by the new single-particle operators is established to display the renormalization effects in the single-particle energies and the two-body matrix elements, and further it is proved that in the Hamiltonian the two-body interactions inducing the ground-state correlati6ns are reduced to small and negligible values. With this Hamiltonian, we are led to a simple
A finite many-particle system can have collective states for which the off-diagonal matrix elements of certain one-particle operators are of the same order of magnitude as the diagonal elements. In such cases it is suggested that the random-phase approximation is in need of generalization. Examples are the uniform translational motion of any system and the rotational motion of deformed nuclei. The generalization is suggested after a review and critical analysis of the Hartree-Fock approximation. The model single-particle wave functions of the latter are replaced by wave functions in a space labeled both by the particle variables and by the quantum numbers of the collective motion. These generalized amplitudes are defined field-theoretically, and a self-consistent scheme for their calculation is obtained from the equations of motion. In addition to the self-consistent potential defined in the enlarged space, the energies of the excited states also turn out to be given by a natural self-consistency requirement. The new calculational scheme is first applied to a systematic restudy of the random-phase approximation where the self-consistency requirement on the energies has previously been overlooked. As a first characteristic application we obtain without "pushing" the total mass of a system in uniform translation, and a reinterpretation of the Hartree-Fock average field.