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arXiv:quant-ph/9812063 · Physical Review A

Variational perturbation theory for density matrices

Michael Bachmann, Hagen M. Kleinert, Axel Pelster

Published Nov 1, 1999• 20 citations
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Abstract

We develop a convergent variational perturbation theory for quantum-statistical density matrices which is applicable to polynomial as well as nonpolynomial interactions. We illustrate the power of the theory by calculating the temperature-dependent density of a particle in the double-well potential to second order, and of the electron in the hydrogen atom to first order.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.60.3429

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We develop a convergent variational perturbation theory for quantum-statistical density matrices which is applicable to polynomial as well as nonpolynomial interactions. We illustrate the power of the theory by calculating the temperature-dependent density of a particle in the double-well potential to second order, and of the electron in the hydrogen atom to first order.
A variational formalism for the determination of the spinless single-particle density matrix $\ensuremath{\gamma}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}, {\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}^{\ensuremath{'}})$ for an interacting many-particle system, correct to second order, is developed. The method is based on variational principles for determining single-particle expectation values, correct to second order, without requiring highly accurate wave functions in order to represent the interacting system. The expectation value of the operator X=Y+iZX=Y+iZX=Y+iZ, where $Y=(\frac{1}{2}){\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{j}[W({\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}_{i}){T}_{j}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{a}})+W({\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}_{j}^{\ensuremath{'}}){T}_{j}(\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{a}})]$, $Z=\ensuremath{-}(\frac{i}{2}){\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{j}[W({\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}_{j}){T}_{j}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{a}})\ensuremath{-}W({\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}_{j}^{\ensuremath{'}}){T}_{j}(\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{a}})]$, $W({\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}_{j})=\ensuremath{\delta}({\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}_{j}\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}})$, ${T}_{j}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{a}})$ is a translation operator, and $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{a}}={\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{r}}$, is the reduced single-particle density matrix. For a given choice of a Slater-determinant-type trial wave function it is shown that the density matrix may be obtained from the charge density of the system where the latter too is determined via the same formalism to second order as the expectation value of the operator WWW employing the same system trial wave function. The applicability of the technique is then demonstrated by showing that for the model hydrogen-atom problem it leads to highly accurate results for the momentum density and the Compton profile in the impulse approximation, and that the virial theorem is closely satisfied, even when the calculations of the various properties employing an approximate trial wave function alone are substantially in error.
A self-contained pedagogical introduction to the functional Schrödinger picture method of many-body theory is given at a level suitable for graduate students and also for many-body physicists who have not been exposed to the functional Schrödinger picture method previously. Mathematical tools necessary for the functional Schrödinger picture calculation are introduced. The method is first applied to various condensed matter problems including the electron gas, the Hubbard model, the BCS superconductivity, and dilute bose gas within the variational approximation. It is shown that the variational approximation with the Gaussian trial functional invariably leads into the Hartree-Fock results for both zero and finite temperature cases. In order to go beyond the Gaussian results, concepts of variational and optimized perturbation theories are introduced using simple quantum mechanical languages. Then, the variational perturbation theory in the functional Schrödinger picture is applied to the λϕ4λϕ^4λϕ4 model to yield the effective potential to the third order. The optimized perturbation theory is also applied to the λϕ4λϕ^4λϕ4 model to yield a general expression up to the second order.
The paper discusses how the variationally inspired perturbation theory (VIPT) scheme of approximation in quantum mechanics can be improved convergencewise if one uses for variational trial functions the perturbative series with variational parameter, so that one is effectively doing variational calculations directly on the high-order perturbative series for energy. The result optimizes the high-order energy directly and thus represents a significant improvement over the VIPT procedure. When applied to a double potential in which even the VIPT is badly divergent, we saw that the result is still very much convergent.
An orbital-free quantum perturbation theory is proposed. It gives the response of the density matrix upon variation of the Hamiltonian by quadratically convergent recursions based on perturbed projections. The technique allows treatment of embedded quantum subsystems with a computational cost scaling linearly with the size of the perturbed region, O(N(pert.)), and as O(1) with the total system size. The method allows efficient high order perturbation expansions, as demonstrated with an example involving a 10th order expansion. Density matrix analogs of Wigner's 2n+1 rule are also presented.