For a quantum-mechanical system of
N identical fermions, the
N-representability problem is the problem of recognizing whether, for a given pth-order reduced density matrix ${\ensuremath{\Gamma}}^{(p)}(12\ensuremath{\cdots}p|{1}^{\ensuremath{'}}{2}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\cdots}{p}^{\ensuremath{'}})$, there exists an antisymmetric
N-particle wave function $\ensuremath{\Psi}(12\ensuremath{\cdots}N)$ such that ${\ensuremath{\Gamma}}^{(p)}(12\ensuremath{\cdots}p|{1}^{\ensuremath{'}}{2}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\cdots}{p}^{\ensuremath{'}})=({N}{p})\ensuremath{\int}\ensuremath{\Psi}(12\ensuremath{\cdots}N)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\ensuremath{\Psi}}^{*}({1}^{\ensuremath{'}}{2}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\cdots}{p}^{\ensuremath{'}},p+1\ensuremath{\cdots}N){d}_{{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{p+1}}\ensuremath{\cdots}{d}_{{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{N}}$. It is shown that if the Hamiltonian of a system is time-reversal invariant, and the number of particles,
N, is even, the necessary and sufficient condition that an approximate first-order density matrix corresponding to a nondegenerate energy eigenstate be
N-representable is that its natural spin-orbital occupation numbers be equal in pairs.
A basis of products of one-particle vectors (symmetric or antisymmetric for bosons or fermions) is defined, and related to the occupation-number basis in an abstract Fock space, a generalization of the wave-mechanical configuration representation of the space of second quantization. Creation and destruction operators are simply defined in the product-vector basis and shown to have their usual properties in occupation-number representation. Algebraic properties of product vectors are developed and illustrated. The representation of operators in the product-vector basis is described, together with a brief discussion of the effects on these operators of transformations from one set of one-particle vectors to another. A simple treatment of density and reduced density operators for systems of bosons or fermions is given in the product-vector basis. The relationship between degeneracy in the Fock-space spectrum of an additive operator NA1 and degeneracy in the spectrum of one-particle operator A1 is obtained.
Bosons and fermions are described by using canonical generators of Cuntz algebras on any permutative representation. According to branching laws associated with these descriptions, a certain representation of the Cuntz algebra O2 induces Fock representations HB and HF of bosons and fermions simultaneously. From this, a unitary operator U from HB to HF is obtained. We show the explicit formula of the action of U on the standard basis of HB. It is shown that U preserves the particle number of HB and HF.