A general variational approach to the quantum statistics of many-particle systems is developed, based on the Gibbs-Bogoliubov variational principle and the ``thermodynamically equivalent Hamiltonian'' method first applied to the BCS model by Bogoliubov, Zubarev, and Tserkovnikov [Sov. Phys.---Dokl. 2, 535 (1957)] and subsequently generalized by Wentzel [Phys. Rev. 120, 1572 (1960)]. The method retains a judiciously chosen discrete set of momentum transfers in the second-quantized interaction Hamiltonian. It is expected to be applicable to a variety of systems including both crystalline solids and quantum fluids such as liquids and dense plasma phases.
"A theory is developed to allow the systematic calculation of the properties of quantum fluids given the microscopic two-body potential. Physical arguments are used to construct a correlation operator that approximately transforms the states of a non-interacting system into the corresponding states of the interacting-system. The theory can be regarded as a microscopic realization of Landau's assumption of a one-to-one correspondence between the non-interacting and interacting states. It is variational since the correlation operator is determined by minimizing E(p) the expectation value of the ground-state energy. We first give a survey of various other many-body theories including the simpler Jastrow variational method. Differential equations are derived to calculate the correlation operator and the related Jastrow correlation"" function. A comparison of results in several Bose systems with various methods is given. The Fermi hypernetted chain integral equations are generalized to allow the calculation of E(p) in Fermi systems, using the correlation operator wave function. The method is applied to liquid 3He and the v2-model of nuclear matter. In 3He the correlation operator gives results in much closer agreement with experiment than that with the Jastrow wave function. A new set of hypernetted chain equations are then derived to allow the calculation of the excited st;ate energies in Bose systems. The theory is then applied to the calculation of the single quasi-particle excitation spectrum of liquid 4He. The spectrum is found to be a stringent test on the form of the correlation operator, deficiencies in the correlation operator giving corresponding errors in the spectrum. Good results are obtained for the density dependence of the roton energy. A variational principle for the free energy is used to generalize the correlation operator technique to finite temperatures. Results are given for the finite temperature properties of the v8-model of nuclear matter."
A variational perturbation theory based on the functional integral approach is formulated for many-particle systems. Using the variational action obtained through Jensen-Peierls' inequality, a perturbative expansion scheme for the thermodynamic potential is established. A modified Wick's theorem is obtained for the variational perturbation expansions. This theorem allows one to carry out systematic calculations of higher order terms without worrying about the double counting problem. A model numerical calculation was carried out on a nucleon gas system interacting through the Yukawa-type potential to test the efficiency of the present method.
An alternative approach to the quantum statistics of interacting particles is proposed. It consists of calculating the equilibrium thermodynamical quantities of the many-body system via the pair distribution function with the assumption that the particles interact with each other only through pair central forces. The proposed approach has some advantage over the usual treatment via the partition function in that the pair distribution function is easier to deal with than the partition function in certain circumstances particularly when the collective motion description of the system is desirable. This is because only the pair distribution function can be expressed directly in terms of the collective interaction which is closely connected with collective elementary excitation, such as a plasmon in the electron gas and a phonon in the hard-sphere Boson gas. The equation of state as well as the internal energy are obtained in the form of integrals of the pair distribution function. The close analogy between the pair distribution function and the two-body propagator, which appears in the quantum field theory, makes it possible to analyze the former by the use of Feynman diagrams identical with those usually introduced for the latter. The collective interaction, which is defined by the sum of the direct and the indirect interactions, is introduced as a particular partial sum of the perturbation series of the pair distribution function. This is used in rewriting the pair distribution function in terms of the collective interaction.It is shown that, while the simple chain approximation to the collective interaction in the electron gas is responsible for the transfer of a plasmon, the same approximation to the collective pseudo-interaction in the hard-sphere Boson system has a relation similar to that of transfer of a phonon, both cases occuring at low temperatures. The explicit calculation of the pair distribution functions for these systems at the absolute zero temperature is carried out up to the first order in the collective interaction (simple chain approximation.) These results are used to calculate the ground-state energies. For the electron gas the energy thus obtained confirms Gell-Mann-Bruckner's calculation of the correlation energy. For the hard-sphere Bosons the calculated energy reproduces the result of Lee, Huang, and Yang. The extension of the calculation to the finite temperature case is also indicated. In particular the classical Debye-Huckel equation of state for the electron gas is briefly discussed.
Variational calculations of the ground-state energy of hard-sphere, helium-4, Coulomb, and nuclear Yukawa fluids are carried out. The long-range part
v(r>d) and a constant part $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ at
r<d of the bare interaction are assumed to contribute to the average field. The correlation function
f(r) is obtained by minimizing the two-body cluster contribution due to the remainder interaction, and the distance
d is determined by minimizing the energy as calculated with the hierarchy of hypernetted-chain-type equations. The convergence of two- and three-particle distribution functions given by these equations is discussed. The method is shown to be exact in the low-density limit, and the comparison of the present results with the available exact (standard) results in the high-density limit (region) verifies its accuracy over the entire density range. It is shown that the variationally obtained value of
d in the high-density Coulomb fluid can be understood with conventional meanfield theory. A solidification criterion is obtained by studying the energies in liquid and solid phases with the present
f(r). This criterion explains the solidification of the Coulomb, hard-sphere, and helium systems, and the inability of the nuclear Yukawa system to solidify. The variational method in the form presented here could be very useful for studying complicated quantum systems.
A trial solution constructed from two-particle functions is applied to the problem of the
N-particle system with strong interactions. In a variational treatment based on this wave function the expectation values, which cannot be factored into single-particle integrals, are evaluated by a cluster development in powers of the particle density. The procedure is illustrated by a calculation of the pair distribution function and zero-point energy of the hard sphere gas, for Bose and Fermi statistics.