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Journal of Applied Physics

Wick's Theorem for Spin Operators and Its Relation to the Coupled-Fermion Representation

Yung‐Li Wang, S. Shtrikman, Herbert B. Callen

Published Mar 1, 1966• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that Wick's theorem and the linked diagram expansion theorem for S = ½ operators (applied elsewhere by the authors to discuss antiferromagnetic spin waves) can be derived by a direct application of conventional theorems to the coupled-fermion representation of spin operators.
DOI
10.1063/1.1708511

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A form of Wick's theorem is derived which is applicable to spin operators of arbitrary magnitude in a manner analogous to the decomposition of fermion and boson operator products. Use of the theorem together with Kubo's cumulant rearrangement of perturbation theory leads to a compact prescription for the calculation of the ground-state energy of spin systems. This method is parallel to Goldstone's linked-cluster expansion for fermions, but the expansion for spins, as well as for bosons, contains cumulant correction terms. The Green functions are shown to be expanded similarly in terms of cumulants. The method is illustrated by the calculation of the antiferromagnetic ground state, and circumvents the involved development in the previous work of Davis and Boon. It is found that our procedure gives better convergence than Davis's expansion and that Boon's final formulas as well as his numerical results contain some errors.
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Wick's theorem provides a connection between time ordered products of bosonic or fermionic fields, and their normal ordered counterparts. We consider a generic pair of operator orderings and we prove, by induction, the theorem that relates them. We name this the general Wick's theorem (GWT) because it carries Wick's theorem as special instance, when one applies the GWT to time and normal orderings. We establish the GWT both for bosonic and fermionic operators, i.e., operators that satisfy c-number commutation and anticommutation relations respectively. We remarkably show that the GWT is the same, independent of the type of operator involved. By means of a few examples, we show how the GWT helps treat demanding problems by reducing the amount of calculations required.