A self-consistent, nonperturbative approximation scheme is proposed which is potentially applicable to arbitrary interacting quantum systems. For the case of self-interaction, the scheme consists in approximating the original interaction HI(ϕ) by a suitable "potential" V(ϕ) which satisfies the following two basic requirements, (i) exact solvability (ES): the "effective" Hamiltonian H0 generated by V(ϕ) is exactly solvable i.e., the spectrum of states |n〉 and the eigenvalues En are known and (ii) equality of quantum averages (EQA): 〈n|HI(ϕ)|n〉 = 〈n|V(ϕ)|n〉 for arbitrary n. The leading order (LO) results for |n〉 and En are thus readily obtained and are found to be accurate to within a few percent of the "exact" results. These LO-results are systematically improvable by the construction of an improved perturbation theory (IPT) with the choice of H0 as the unperturbed Hamiltonian and the modified interaction, λH′(ϕ)≡λ(HI(ϕ) - V(ϕ)), as the perturbation where λ is the coupling strength. The condition of convergence of the IPT for arbitrary λ is satisfied due to the EQA requirement which ensures that 〈n|λH′(ϕ)|n〉 = 0for arbitrary λ and n. This is in contrast to the divergence (which occurs even for infinitesimal λ!) in the naive perturbation theory where the original interaction λHI(ϕ) is chosen as the perturbation. We apply the method to the different cases of the anharmonic and the double well potentials, e.g. quartic-, sextic- and octic-anharmonic oscillators and quartic-, sextic-double well oscillators. Uniformly accurate results for the energy levels over the full allowed range of λ and n are obtained. The results compare well with the exact results predicted by supersymmetry for the case of the sextic anharmonic potential and the double well partner potential. Further improvement in the accuracy of the results by the use of IPT, is demonstrated. We also discuss the vacuum structure and stability of the resulting theory in the above approximation scheme.
We introduce a non perturbative general approximation scheme (NGAS) that can handle interactions of any strength in quantum theory. This approach starts with an input Hamiltonian that can be solved exactly. The interaction effects are then built into this Hamiltonian through nonlinear feedback enforced by self consistency conditions. While the method itself is nonperturbative it can be systematically improved using a new perturbation method called 'mean field perturbation theory' which does not involve power series expansion in any small parameter. We put this scheme to the test on one dimensional anharmonic interactions using the harmonic approximation. The results are consistently accurate across various cases including quartic, sextic, and octic anharmonic oscillators, as well as the quartic double well oscillator (QDWO) even when the coupling strength varies widely. The flexibility of the method is demonstrated when we swap the input Hamiltonian for that of an infinite square well and still achieve comparable accuracy. When applied to the λϕ4 quantum field theory this approach aligns with the Gaussian effective potential method under the harmonic approximation. Beyond that it reveals the condensate structure of the effective vacuum and highlights the instability of the perturbative ground state. Notably, our ground-state energy results for the QDWO stand in stark contrast to those from standard perturbation theory where Borel summation fails regardless of coupling strength.
A self-consistent, non-perturbative scheme of approximation is proposed for arbitrary interacting quantum systems by generalization of the Hartree method.The scheme consists in approximating the original interaction term
λHI by a suitable 'potential'
λV(ϕ) which satisfies the following two requirements: (i) the 'Hartree Hamiltonian'
Ho generated by
V(ϕ) is exactly solvable i.e, the eigen states
∣n> and the eigenvalues
En are known and (ii) the 'quantum averages' of the two are equal, i.e.
<n∣HI∣n> = $$ for arbitrary
′n′. The leading-order results for
∣n> and
En, which are already accurate, can be systematically improved further by the development of a 'Hartree-improved perturbation theory' (HIPT) with
Ho as the unperturbed part and the modified interaction:
λH′≡λ(HI−V) as the perturbation. The HIPT is assured of rapid convergence because of the 'Hartree condtion' : $ = 0$. This is in contrast to the naive perturbation theory developed with the original interaction term
λHI chosen as the perturbation, which diverges even for infinitesimal
λ ! The structure of the Hartree vacuum is shown to be highly non-trivial. Application of the method to the anharmonic-and double-well quartic-oscillators, anharmonic- sextic and octic- oscillators leads to very accurate results for the energy levels. In case of
λϕ4 quantum field theory, the method reproduces, in the leading order, the results of Gaussian approximation, which can be improved further by the HIPT. We study the vacuum structure, renormalisation and stability of the theory in GHA.
We present a new formulation of perturbation theory for quantum systems, designated here as: “mean field perturbation theory” (MFPT), which is free from power-series-expansion in any physical parameter, including the coupling strength. Its application is thereby extended to deal with interactions of arbitrary strength and to compute system-properties having non-analytic dependence on the coupling, thus overcoming the primary limitations of the “standard formulation of perturbation theory” (SFPT). MFPT is defined by developing perturbation about a chosen input Hamiltonian, which is exactly solvable but which acquires the nonlinearity and the analytic structure (in the coupling strength) of the original interaction through a self-consistent, feedback mechanism. We demonstrate Borel-summability of MFPT for the case of the quartic- and sextic-anharmonic oscillators and the quartic double-well oscillator (QDWO) by obtaining uniformly accurate results for the ground state of the above systems for arbitrary physical values of the coupling strength. The results obtained for the QDWO may be of particular significance since “renormalon”-free, unambiguous results are achieved for its spectrum in contrast to the well-known failure of SFPT in this case.
This is an investigation of the energy levels and wavefunctions of an anharmonic oscillator characterised by the potential 1/2 (omega 2 q 2 + lambda q 4 ). As a lowest-order approximation an extremely simple formula for energy levels, E i (0) = (i + 1/2)1/4(3/alpha i + alpha i ), is derived (i being the quantum number of the energy level), which covers any (lambda, i). alpha i is the real positive root of a cubic equation: y i alpha i 3 + alpha i 2 - 1 = 0, with y i = 6lambda(2i 2 + 2i + 1)/(2i+1). This formula reproduces the exact energy levels within an error of about 1% for any ( lambda ,i) (the worst case is 2% for i = 0, lambda to infinity). Systematically higher orders of this perturbation theory are developed, which contains the 'usual' perturbation theory for the limiting case of small lambda , but this perturbation theory is valid for any (i, lambda). The second-order perturbation theory reduces the errors of our lowest-order results by a factor of about 1/5 in general. Various ranges (large, intermediate, small) of (i, lambda ) are investigated and compared with the exact values obtained by the Montroll group (1975, 1978). For i = 0, 1, even the fourth-order perturbation calculation can be elaborated explicitly, which reduces the error to about 0.01% for any lambda . For small lambda it gives correct numerical coefficients up to lambda 4 terms, as it should.
In this article, for pedagogical purposes we have discussed the application of nondegenerate perturbation theory up to the third order to compute energy eigenvalues and wave functions for the quantum anharmonic oscillator. Energy levels of a single quartic oscillator for 𝜆 values in range of 0.1-1 are given. Perturbed and non-perturbed wave functions of the levels up to the fourth excited level are compared. Ground, first and second excited energy levels are also calculated by applying finite differences method and, results are compared with the ones obtained via perturbation theory. It is found that perturbation theory gives comparable results only for a small 𝜆 parameter and for the ground state. The quartic term in the Hamiltonian of the anharmonic oscillator leads to a more effective confinement of the particle which is deduced from the plots of wavefunctions and probability distributions. Meanwhile, the number of zero crossing nodes of the wavefunctions increases as the energy level increases, which is an expected result for both the harmonic and anharmonic oscillator.
A new approach to the eigenvalue problem in quantum mechanics is proposed. This approach is based on three propositions: 1) a perturbation theory which does not require knowledge of the entire eigenvalue spectrum of the unperturbed problem and which uses a nonlinearization procedure (leaving some latitude in the choice of a zeroth order approximation); 2) a relationship between the perturbation theory and a variational principle, namely that any variational calculation is none other than the first two terms of some nontrivial perturbation theory which, when developed further, can reveal the accuracy of the variational calculations and can refine them by an iterative procedure; 3) Dyson's argument, which serves as a criterion for the reasonableness of the choice of a zeroth order approximation (the unperturbed problem). The realization of this perturbation theory in a k-dimensional space is equivalent to the solution of a k-dimensional electrostatic problem with a variable dielectric permittivity. In the one-dimensional case and in cases which reduce to the one-dimensional case, all the corrections are written in quadratures. It is shown that the construction of an ordinary perturbation theory (in which the zeroth order approximation is an exactly solvable problem) within the framework of this perturbation theory is a purely algebraic procedure, which reduces to the solution of some simple recurrence relations. An approximation analogous to the leading logarithmic approximation of quantum field theory is constructed. Some standard problems of quantum mechanics—the anharmonic oscillator, the Zeeman effect, and the Stark effect—are treated as examples. It is shown that this new approach makes it possible to develop systematically a theory for strong coupling and large perturbations.