At present, the only general method available for gaining knowledge from the fundamental principles about the dynamics of a system is the perturbative study. This consists in dividing the Hamiltonian into one part representing a simpler well-understood problem and a nontrivial part, the effect of which is studied order by order. The expressions resulting from perturbation theory quickly become unwieldy. This chapter deals with propagators. It introduces the retarded and advanced propagator and describes their perturbation theoretic structure in a potential in terms of diagrams. A convenient method of representing perturbative expressions by diagrams was invented by Feynman. Besides the appealing aspect of representing perturbative expressions by drawings, the diagrammatic method can also be used directly for reasoning and problem solving. The easily recognizable topology of diagrams makes the diagrammatic method a powerful tool for constructing approximation schemes as well as exact equations that may hold true beyond perturbation theory.
At present, the only general method available for gaining knowledge from the fundamental principles about the dynamics of a system is the perturbative study. This consists in dividing the Hamiltonian into one part representing a simpler well-understood problem and a nontrivial part, the effect of which is studied order by order. The expressions resulting from perturbation theory quickly become unwieldy. This chapter deals with propagators. It introduces the retarded and advanced propagator and describes their perturbation theoretic structure in a potential in terms of diagrams. A convenient method of representing perturbative expressions by diagrams was invented by Feynman. Besides the appealing aspect of representing perturbative expressions by drawings, the diagrammatic method can also be used directly for reasoning and problem solving. The easily recognizable topology of diagrams makes the diagrammatic method a powerful tool for constructing approximation schemes as well as exact equations that may hold true beyond perturbation theory.
At present, the only general method available for gaining knowledge from the fundamental principles about the dynamics of a system is the perturbative study. According to Feynman, as described in Chapter 4, instead of formulating quantum theory in terms of operators, the canonical formulation, for calculational purposes quantum dynamics can conveniently be formulated in terms of a few simple stenographic rules, the Feynman rules for propagators and interaction vertices. In Chapters 4 and 5, we showed how to arrive at the Feynman rules of diagrammatic perturbation theory for non-equilibrium states starting from the Hamiltonian defining the theory. The feature of non-equilibrium states, originally carried by the dynamical indices, could be expressed in terms of two simple universal vertex rules for the RAK-components of the matrix Green's functions. We are thus well acquainted with diagrammatics even for the description of non-equilibrium situations. However, for the situations studied using the quantum kinetic equations in Chapters 7 and 8, only the Dyson equation was needed, i.e. the self-energy, the 2-state one-particle irreducible amputated Green's function. No need for higher-order vertex functions was required, and the full flourishing diagrammatics was not put into action. In this chapter we shall proceed the other way around. We shall show that the diagrammatics of a physical theory, including the description of non-equilibrium states, can be obtained by simply stating quantum dynamics, the superposition principle, as the two exclusive options for a particle: to interact or not to interact ! From this simple Shakespearean approach we shall construct the Feynman diagrammatics of non-equilibrium dynamics.
In this chapter, we introduce and explain one of the fundamental tools in the study of dynamic critical phenomena, namely dynamic perturbation theory. Inevitably, large parts of Chapter 4 need to be rather technical. Complementary to the straightforward iterative method for the solution of non-linear Langevin equations presented in Section 3.2.3, we now describe the more elegant and efficient field-theoretic techniques. Yet both for the derivation of general properties of the perturbation series and for the sake of practical calculations, the response functional and the following elaborations on Feynman diagrams, cumulants, and vertex functions prove indispensable. As is the case with every efficient formalism, once one has become acquainted with the Janssen–De Dominicis response functional for the construction of dynamic field theory, and therefrom the perturbation expansion in terms of vertex functions, it serves to save a considerable amount of rather tedious work. For the purely relaxational O ( n )-symmetric models A and B, we derive the fluctuation-dissipation theorem within this formalism, and then systematically construct the perturbation series and its diagrammatic representation in terms of Feynman graphs. In order to reduce the required efforts to a minimum, the generating functionals first for the cumulants, and then, motivated by Dyson's equation for the propagator, for the one-particle irreducible vertex functions are examined. As an example, the relevant vertex functions for models A and B are explicitly evaluated to two-loop order. Furthermore, alternative formulations of the perturbation expansion are discussed, and the Feynman rules are given in both the frequency and the time domain. The results of this chapter provide the foundation for the renormalization group treatment in the subsequent Chapter 5.
DiagrammaticsThe diagrammatic method is one of the most powerful tools of theoretical physics.It allows us to efficiently organize perturbative computations in statistical physics, quantum many-body theory and quantum field theory.The main feature of this method is a representation of individual terms of a perturbative expansion as diagrams (graphs).Diagrams consist of vertices representing terms in the perturbation, lines representing pairings between vertices and, possibly, external legs.There exist several kinds of diagrams.We will try to present them in a systematic way.In Sect.20.1 we present a diagrammatic formalism whose goal is to organize integration of polynomials with respect to a Gaussian measure.This formalism is used extensively in classical statistical physics.It also plays an important role in quantum physics, especially in the Euclidean approach, since many quantum quantities can be expressed in terms of Gaussian integrals over classical variables.We use the term "Gaussian integration" in a rather broad sense.Beside commuting "bosonic" variables, we also consider anti-commuting "fermionic" variables, where we use the Berezin integral with respect to a Gaussian weight.Even in the case of commuting variables, the "Gaussian integral" is not necessarily meant in the sense of measure theory.It denotes an algebraic operation performed on polynomials (or formal power series), which in the case of a positive definite covariance coincides with the usual integral with a Gaussian weight.However, we allow the covariance to be complex, or even negative definite, and do not insist that the operation have a measure theoretic meaning.We distinguish two kinds of spaces on which we perform the integrals: real and complex.As in many other places in our work, we treat these two cases in parallel.Of course, the difference between the real (i.e.neutral), and the complex (i.e.charged) formalism is mainly that of a different notation.In particular, charged lines need to be equipped with an arrow, whereas neutral lines need not.The terminology that we use is inspired by quantum field theory.Therefore, the variables that enter the integral are associated with "particles"; they are divided into "bosons" and "fermions", each subdivided into "neutral" and "charged" particles.In the main part of the chapter we describe the diagram formalism used in quantum many-body physics and quantum field theory.As a preparation, we include a brief Sect.20.2 devoted to the basic terminology of perturbation theory
The diagrammatic method is one of the most powerful tools of theoretical physics. It allows us to efficiently organize perturbative computations in statistical physics, quantum many-body theory and quantum field theory. The main feature of this method is a representation of individual terms of a perturbative expansion as diagrams ( graphs ). Diagrams consist of vertices representing terms in the perturbation, lines representing pairings between vertices and, possibly, external legs . There exist several kinds of diagrams. We will try to present them in a systematic way. In Sect. 20.1 we present a diagrammatic formalism whose goal is to organize integration of polynomials with respect to a Gaussian measure. This formalism is used extensively in classical statistical physics. It also plays an important role in quantum physics, especially in the Euclidean approach, since many quantum quantities can be expressed in terms of Gaussian integrals over classical variables. We use the term “Gaussian integration” in a rather broad sense. Beside commuting “bosonic” variables, we also consider anti-commuting “fermionic” variables, where we use the Berezin integral with respect to a Gaussian weight. Even in the case of commuting variables, the “Gaussian integral” is not necessarily meant in the sense of measure theory. It denotes an algebraic operation performed on polynomials (or formal power series), which in the case of a positive definite covariance coincides with the usual integral with a Gaussian weight. However, we allow the covariance to be complex, or even negative definite, and do not insist that the operation have a measure theoretic meaning.
Abstract We solve the coupled recurrence relations for eigenenergies and -vectors in nondegenerate Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory under the constraint that the approximate eigenvector is normalised to 1 in every order. The series can be expressed in terms of diagrams that were first introduced by Bloch (Nucl Phys 6:329, 1958) for the degenerate, unnormalised case. Normalisation increases the number of terms and introduces a nontrivial dependence on the diagrams’ topology to the coefficients.
Using a general-order ab initio many-body Green's function method, we numerically illustrate several pathological behaviors of the Feynman-Dyson diagrammatic perturbation expansion of one-particle many-body Green's functions as electron Feynman propagators. (i) The perturbation expansion of the frequency-dependent self-energy is not convergent at the exact self-energy in many frequency domains. (ii) An odd-perturbation-order self-energy has a qualitatively wrong shape and, as a result, many roots of the corresponding Dyson equation are nonphysical in that the poles may be complex or residues can exceed unity or be negative. (iii) A higher even-order self-energy consists of vertical lines at many frequencies, predicting numerous phantom poles with zero residues. (iv) Infinite partial resummations of diagrams by vertex or edge renormalization tend to exacerbate these pathologies. (v) The nonconvergence is caused by the nonanalyticity of the rational-function form of the exact Green's function at many frequencies, where the radius of convergence of its Taylor expansion is zero. This is consistent with the fact that (vi) Pad\'e approximants (power-series expansions of a rational function) can largely restore the correct shape and poles of the Green's function. Nevertheless, not only does the nonconvergence render higher-order Feynman-Dyson diagrammatic perturbation theory useless for many lower-lying ionization or higher-lying electron-attachment states but it also calls into question the validity of its combined use with the Ans\"atze requiring the knowledge of all poles and residues. Such Ans\"atze include the Galitskii-Migdal identity, the self-consistent Green's function methods, and some models of the algebraic diagrammatic construction.