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arXiv:cond-mat/0401500 · Physical Review B

Hedin’s equations and enumeration of Feynman diagrams

Luca Guido Molinari

Published Mar 17, 2005• 25 citations
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Abstract

Hedin's equations are solved perturbatively in zero dimension to count Feynman graphs for self-energy, polarization, propagator, effective potential and vertex function in a many-body theory of fermions with two-body interaction. Counting numbers are also obtained in the $GW$ approximation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.71.113102

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Hedin's equations are solved perturbatively in zero dimension to count Feynman graphs for self-energy, polarization, propagator, effective potential and vertex function in a many-body theory of fermions with two-body interaction. Counting numbers are also obtained in the GWGWGW approximation.
Feynman diagrams for the many-body perturbational theory are enumerated by solving the system of Hedin’s equations in zero dimension. We extend the treatment of Molinari [Phys. Rev. B 71, 113102 (2005)] and give a complete solution of the enumeration problem in terms of Whittaker functions. An important relation between the generating function of the electron propagator and anomalous dimension in quantum field theory of massless fermions and mesons in four dimensions (Yukawa theory) is found. The Hopf algebra of undecorated rooted trees yields the anomalous field dimension in terms of the solution of the same differential equation. Its relation to the mathematical problem of combinatorics of chord diagrams is discussed; asymptotic expansions of the counting numbers are obtained.
In many ways the solution to the Hedin equations represents an exact solution to the many body problem. However, for most systems of practical interest, the solution to the Hedin equations is rendered nearly numerically intractable because the Hedin equations are of functional derivative form. Integral equations, on the other hand, are much more numerically tractable, than functional derivative equations, as they can often be solved iteratively. In this work we present a systematic set of integral equations (with no functional derivatives) - Hedin approximations I, II, III, IV etc. - whose solutions converge to the solutions of the exact Hedin equations. The Hedin approximations are well suited to iterative numerical solutions (which we also describe). Furthermore Hedin approximation I is just the GW approximation (as such this work may be viewed as a systematic improvement of the GW approximation). We present a systematic study of the Hedin equations for zero dimensional field theory (which, in particular, is a method to enumerate Feynman diagrams for field theories in arbitrary dimensions) and show better and better convergence to the solutions of the Hedin equations for higher and higher Hedin approximations, with Hedin approximations I, II and III being explicitly studied. We, in particular, show that the higher Hedin approximations capture more and and more Feynman diagrams for the self energy. We also show that already Hedin approximation II captures more diagrams than the state of the art diagrammatic vertex corrections approach. Furthermore Hedin approximation III is a near perfect match to the exact solutions of the Hedin equations, at least in the zero dimensional case, and enumerates a large number of Feynman diagrams.
Hedin's equations provide an elegant route to compute the exact one-body Green's function (or propagator) via the self-consistent iteration of a set of nonlinear equations. Its first-order approximation, known as GWGWGW, corresponds to a resummation of ring diagrams and has shown to be extremely successful in physics and chemistry. Systematic improvement is possible, although challenging, via the introduction of vertex corrections. Considering anomalous propagators and an external pairing potential, we derive a self-consistent set of closed equations equivalent to the famous Hedin equations but having as a first-order approximation, the particle-particle (pp) TTT-matrix approximation, where one performs a resummation of the ladder diagrams. This pp version of Hedin's equations offers a way to go systematically beyond the TTT-matrix approximation by accounting for low-order pp vertex corrections.
We present an iterative algorithm to count Feynman diagrams via many-body relations. The algorithm allows us to count the number of diagrams of the exact solution for the general fermionic many-body problem at each order in the interaction. Further, we apply it to different parquet-type approximations and consider spin-resolved diagrams in the Hubbard model. Low-order results and asymptotics are explicitly discussed for various vertex functions and different two-particle channels. The algorithm can easily be implemented and generalized to many-body relations of different forms and levels of approximation.
Hedin's equations for the electron self-energy and the vertex have originally been derived for a many-electron system with Coulomb interaction. In recent years, it has been increasingly recognized that spin interactions can play a major role in determining physical properties of systems such as nanoscale magnets or of interfaces and surfaces. We derive a generalized set of Hedin's equations for quantum many-body systems containing spin interactions, e.g., spin-orbit and spin-spin interactions. The corresponding spin-dependent GW approximation is constructed.
Historically, the GW approach was put forward by Hedin as the simplest approximation to the so-called Hedin equations. In Section 2, we will derive these Hedin equations from a Feynman-diagrammatical point of view. Section 3.1 shows how GW arises as an approximation to the Hedin equations. In Section 3.2, we briefly present some typical GW results for materials, including quasiparticle renormalizations, lifetimes, and band gap enhancements. In Section 4, the combination of GW and DMFT is summarized. Finally, as a prospective outlook, ab initio dynamical vertex approximation DΓΓΓA is introduced in Section 5 as a unifying scheme for all that: GW, DMFT and non-local vertex correlations beyond.