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.
A simple alternative derivation of conventional cluster expansion formulas of Iwamoto and Yamada and others for the expectation value ≪H > of the energy of a many-Fermion system is offered. The assumed trial function is of the general form FΦp/(FΦp, FΦp)1/2, where Φp is a Slater determinant of appropriate single-particle functions and the factor F is attached to account for the possibility of strong interparticle correlations. The proposed scheme is applicable to finite as well as infinite systems and is easily generalized to the calculation of non-diagonal as well as diagonal matrix elements, with respect to the members of the set {FΦp/(FΦp, FΦp)1/2}. Explicit results for ≪H > are displayed to second cluster order, contributions being classified according to their assigned order of magnitude in a correlation parameter ξ=|Nω/Ω| of the sort introduced by Iwamoto and Yamada and Clark and Westhaus.
We study many-body correlations in the ground state of a general quantum system of bosons or fermions by including an additional Jastrow function in our recently proposed variational coupled-cluster method. Our approach combines the advantages of state-dependent correlations in the coupled-cluster theory and of the strong, short-ranged correlations of the Jastrow function. We apply a generalized linked-cluster expansion for the Jastrow wave function and provide a detailed analysis for practical evaluation of the Hamiltonian expectation value as an energy functional of the Jastrow function and the bare density-distribution functions introduced and calculated in our earlier publications; a simple, first-order energy functional is derived and detailed formulas for the higher-order contributions are provided. Our energy functional does not suffer the divergence as most coupled-cluster calculations often do when applying to Hamiltonians with hardcore potentials. We also discuss possible applications of our technique, including applications to strongly correlated fermion systems.
In order to investigate the many particle system by the variational principle, the cluster development method proposed by Jastrow is systematically formulated. It is a direct generalization of the Hartree method, in which two particle functions are included in the trial function to represent the correlations between particles. The energy expectation value is expanded in a series, each term of which is expressed in cluster integrals. It is found that the series converges rapidly when the correlations are marked only for small particle separations, so that this method is expected to be useful especially for the system of particles interacting through short range potentials with repulsive cores.
We present a perturbative treatment of Jastrow-type correlation factors which focus on an accurate description of short-range correlations. Our approach is closely related to coupled cluster perturbation theory with the essential difference that we start from a variational formulation for the energy. Such kind of perturbation theory is especially suited for multiscale bases, such as wavelets, which provide sparse representations for Jastrow factors. Envisaged applications in solid-state physics are confined many-particle systems such as electrons or multiexcitons in quantum dots. The resulting Jastrow factors can be further used as trial wave functions in quantum Monte Carlo calculations for these systems. First applications to a screened homogeneous Fermi gas model demonstrate that first-order Jastrow factors already recover 95% of the correlation energy in variational Monte Carlo calculations over a fairly large range of densities and screening parameters. The corresponding second- and third-order perturbation energies turned out to be more sensitive to the specific choice of the model parameters. Furthermore, we have compared our first-order Jastrow factors with those obtained from Fermi hypernetted chain calculations, where excellent agreement at short and intermediate interparticle distances has been observed.