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Physical Review

Variational Methods and the Nuclear Many-Body Problem

R. Brout

Published Sep 1, 1958• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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 $〈{m}_{1}{m}_{2}|A|{p}_{1}{p}_{2}〉$. Variation of this matrix in the Ritz-Rayleigh principle yields a set of integral equations of the scattering type for the matrix $A$. Hole-state energies are given self-consistently in terms of the matrix $A$, 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.

DOI
10.1103/physrev.111.1324

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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 〈\ensuremathψ∣H∣\ensuremathψ〉〈\ensuremath{\psi}|H|\ensuremath{\psi}〉〈\ensuremathψ∣H∣\ensuremathψ〉, the particle-state energies are easily renormalized. Variation then leads to an infinite hierarchy of integral equations.
In parallel with standard density-functional theory, we study the energy of the ground state of a finite many-body system as a functional of the one-particle density matrix. We show that the formulation of a variational principle that is valid beyond the Hartree-Fock limit requires that two-body correlations be included not only in the ground-state energy but also in the constraints. As an illustration, we apply a linear-response argument to derive formulas for first-order corrections to the Hartree-Fock density matrix. Further analysis suggests an approach in terms of the density matrix of an independent-particle system, which can be introduced by the application of an alternative variational principle. This approach is reminiscent of Kohn-Sham theory, but the effective external potential is not required to be local. This variational method can be implemented in a systematic fashion by means of the linked-cluster expansion. In an appendix we study a variant of the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem for nonlocal potentials.
The ground-state wave function and energy of a finite system of interacting fermions are expanded in terms of multiple-particle excitations on an uncorrelated zero-order state. The resulting set of coupled equations constitutes a systematic variational generalization of Hartree-Fock theory. Comparison is made with many-body perturbation theory and it is shown that to any order the theory incorporates an infinite number of perturbation theory terms. Solutions of the equations for ground-state atomic systems are discussed and related to previous work using many-body perturbation theory. It is shown that the sums of perturbation terms necessary for convergence are automatically included in the equations for two-particle excitations. Application of the equations to open-shell atoms is described.
A variational approach to the approximate solution of a wide variety of self-consistency problems is described. Attention is focused on the variational formulation of the nonlinear integral equation, which determines the single-particle Green's function of a many-particle system; such an equation arises from a particular truncation of the hierarchy of equations which dynamically couple the complete set of Green's functions. To illustrate the method, we have applied it, with encouraging results, to the numerical determination of the self-energy function for the helium atom in the Hartree-Fock approximation. The applicability of this approach to the general problem of electron-atom scattering is pointed out.
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.
We develop a general variational theory for inhomogeneous Fermi systems such as the electron gas in a metal surface, the surface of liquid 3He^{3}\mathrm{He}3He, or simple models of heavy nuclei. The ground-state wave function is expressed in terms of two-body correlations, a one-body attenuation factor, and a model-system Slater determinant. Massive partial summations of cluster expansions are performed by means of Born-Green-Yvon and hypernetted-chain techniques. An optimal single-particle basis is generated by a generalized Hartree-Fock equation in which the two-body correlations screen the bare interparticle interaction. The optimization of the pair correlations leads to a state-averaged random-phase-approximation equation and a strictly microscopic determination of the particle-hole interaction.
In a previous paper a trial wave function of the form ψ = D II i<i f ( x ij ) was used variationally to calculate the ground-state energy of an interacting electron gas, D being a determinant of plane waves and f ( x ij ) a correlation function. In this work attention is focused on the nature of the wave function; in particular, the correlation function f ( x ij ) and the pair distribution function are calculated and numerical results are presented for two widely different densities. In the course of this work, further light is thrown on the approximations made in the earlier energy calculations. Finally, the use of a wave function of the type ψ = II i<j f ( x ij ) in the calculation of the ground-state energy of a system of charged bosons is discussed and the exact high-density result of Foldy obtained.