Generalized Brückner-Hartree-Fock theory and self-consistent RPA

Self-consistent RPA (SCRPA) theory is developed in the particle-particle (pp) channel. It is pointed out that in this way vertex and self-energy corrections are taken into account on an equal footing whereas in Brückner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) this is not the case. We discuss in detail the interconnection between both theories and apply them to a model case. Excellent agreement with the exact solution is found for SCRPA where as BHF gives somewhat poorer results. In an appendix it is demonstrated how SCRPA connects to a variational principle and how, for the particle-hole case, sum rules and conservation laws are fulfilled.     

Fully Self-Consistent RPA Description of the Many Level Pairing Model

The self-consistent RPA (SCRPA) equations in the particle-particle channel are solved without any approximation for the picket fence model. The results are in excellent agreement with the exact solutions found with the Richardson method. Particularly interesting features are that screening corrections reverse the sign of the interaction and that SCRPA yields the exact energies in the case of two levels with two particles.     

TFD extension of a self-consistent RPA to finite temperatures

The self-consistent RPA (SCRPA) developed by Schuck and coauthors is extended to finite temperatures. The corresponding equations are derived by using the formalism of thermofield dynamics. The intrinsic energy of a system is calculated as the expectation value of the Hamiltonian with respect to a T-dependent thermal vacuum state for a thermal-phonon operator. A nonvanishing number of thermal quasiparticles in the vacuum state are assumed. By virtue of the assumption, the thermal Hartree-Fock (HF) equations appear to be coupled to the equations of motion for phonon variables. The thermal occupation numbers are also calculated in a consistent way with the energies of the HF quasiparticles. The approximation is applied to the two-level Lipkin model. Advantages of the thermal SCRPA (TSCRPA) are most obvious at temperatures near the phase-transition point. In the TSCRPA, the phase transition occurs at lower T than in other approximations. Moreover, within the TSCRPA, a statistical behavior of the Lipkin model is described with an appropriate accuracy at any T even if the HF transformation parameter is kept fixed at a value corresponding to the “spherical” phase of the HF field.     

Random-phase approximation and its extension for the O(2) anharmonic oscillator

We apply the random-phase approximation (RPA) and its extension called renormalized RPA to the quantum anharmonic oscillator with an O(2) symmetry. We first obtain the equation for the RPA frequencies in the standard and in the renormalized RPAs using the equation-of-motion method. In the case where the ground state has a broken symmetry, we check the existence of a zero frequency in the standard and in the renormalized RPAs. Then we use a time-dependent approach where the standard-RPA frequencies are obtained as small oscillations arround the static solution in the time-dependent Hartree-Bogoliubov equation. We draw the parallel between the two approaches.Received: 8 July 2003, Published online: 5 January 2004PACS: 21.60.Jz Hartree-Fock and random-phase approximations - 24.10.Cn Many-body theory     

Study of the Gamow-Teller resonance in 90Nb and 208Bi

An approach is proposed for studying the spreading properties of the Gamow-Teller resonance (GTR) in heavy nuclei including the coupling to 2p2h configurations and the ground-state correlations beyond RPA. The GTR is generated by a proton p-neutron h (πp-νh) phonon within the renormalized RPA. The second-order configuration mixing beyond RPA is realized by constructing two-phonon configurations, in which one of two intermediate phonon states is a πp-νh phonon. The numerical calculations are performed in the parent nuclei ⁹⁰Zr and ²⁰⁸Pb making use of M3Y nucleon-nucleon interaction and the single-particle wave functions obtained in the standard harmonic oscillator potential. The single-particle energies around the Fermi surface are substituted with the empirical values or those given by a Woods-Saxon potential. The results obtained provide a reasonable account for recent experimental findings on the GTR in these nuclei. The extension of the present approach to highly excited (hot) nuclei is also provided. The GTR is found to be stable against temperatures up to T = 6 MeV.     

Generalized random phase approximation and gauge theories

Mean-field treatments of Yang-Mills theory face the problem of how to treat the Gauss law constraint. In this paper we try to face this problem by studying the excited states instead of the ground state. For this purpose we extend the operator approach to the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) well-known from nuclear physics and recently also employed in pion physics to general bosonic theories with a standard kinetic term. We focus especially on conservation laws, and how they are translated from the full to the approximated theories, demonstrate that the operator approach has the same spectrum as the RPA derived from the time-dependent variational principle, and give—for Yang-Mills theory—a discussion of the moment of inertia connected to the energy contribution of the zero modes to the RPA ground state energy. We also indicate a line of thought that might be useful to improve the results of the Random Phase Approximation.     

Beyond the random-phase approximation for the electron correlation energy: the importance of single excitations

The random-phase approximation (RPA) for the electron correlation energy, combined with the exact-exchange (EX) energy, represents the state-of-the-art exchange-correlation functional within density-functional theory. However, the standard RPA practice--evaluating both the EX and the RPA correlation energies using Kohn-Sham (KS) orbitals from local or semilocal exchange-correlation functionals--leads to a systematic underbinding of molecules and solids. Here we demonstrate that this behavior can be corrected by adding a "single excitation" contribution, so far not included in the standard RPA scheme. A similar improvement can also be achieved by replacing the non-self-consistent EX total energy by the corresponding self-consistent Hartree-Fock total energy, while retaining the RPA correlation energy evaluated using KS orbitals. Both schemes achieve chemical accuracy for a standard benchmark set of noncovalent intermolecular interactions.     

Random phase approximation and extensions applied to a bosonic field theory

An application of a self-consistent version of RPA to quantum field theory with broken symmetry is presented. Although our approach can be applied to any bosonic field theory, we specifically study the ϕ⁴ theory in 1 + 1 dimensions. We show that the standard RPA approach leads to an instability which can be removed when going to a superior version, i.e. the renormalized RPA. We present a method based on the so-called charging formula of the many-electron problem to calculate the correlation energy and the RPA effective potential. Received: 18 February 2002 / Accepted: 8 May 2002     

Thermal Bogoliubov transformation in nuclear structure theory

Thermal Bogoliubov transformation is an essential ingredient of the thermo field dynamics—the real time formalism in quantum field and many-body theories at finite temperatures developed by H. Umezawa and coworkers. The approach to study properties of hot nuclei which is based on the extension of the well-known Quasiparticle-Phonon Model to finite temperatures employing the TFD formalism is presented. A distinctive feature of the QPM-TFD combination is a possibility to go beyond the standard approximations like the thermal Hartree-Fock or the thermal RPA ones.     

The phonon-coupling model for Skyrme forces

A short review on the self-consistent RPA based on the energy-density functional of the Skyrme type is given. We also present an extension of the RPA where the coupling of phonons to the single-particle states is considered. Within this approach we present numerical results which are compared with data. The self-consistent approach is compared with the Landau–Migdal theory. Here we derive from the self-consistent ph interaction, the Landau–Migdal parameters as well as their density dependence. In the Appendix a new derivation of the reduced matrix elements of the ph interaction is presented.     

Functional integral mean field expansions for nuclear many fermion systems

We present a careful analysis of the auxiliary field functional integral formalism for many fermion systems. We examine the limiting procedure used in construction of such integrals and show that a wide flexibility exists with respect to the choice of the one-body field representation upon which mean field expansions are made. We demonstrate the utility of this flexibility in the context of the evaluation of the grand canonical partition function. We examine the zero order. RPA and certain higher-order terms. The above-mentioned flexibility is reflected in the dependence of the results on a trial two-body interaction, different choices of which produce Hartree, Fock, HartreeFock or other forms of the mean field expansions. A standard variational procedure selects the Hartree-Fock as the optimal choice. With this choice we find certain corrections to previously reported RPA contribution for the Hartree mean field. We also indicate the relevance of our formulation for the recent applications of the functional integral mean field approach to nuclear dynamical problems.     

The nuclear scissors mode from various aspects

Three methods to describe collective motion, random phase approximation (RPA), Wigner function moments (WFM) and the Green’s Function (GF) method are compared in detail and their physical content analyzed on an example of a simple model, the harmonic oscillator with quadrupole-quadrupole residual interaction. It is shown that they give identical formulae for eigenfrequencies and transition probabilities of all collective excitations of the model, including the scissors mode, which is the subject of our special attention. The exact relation between the RPA and WFM variables and the respective dynamical equations is established. The transformation of the RPA spectrum into the one of WFM is explained. The very close connection of the WFM method with the GF one is demonstrated. The normalization factor of the “synthetic” scissors state and its overlap with physical states are calculated analytically. The orthogonality of the spurious state to all physical states is proved rigorously. A differential equation describing the current lines of RPA modes is established and the current lines of the scissors mode analyzed as a superposition of rotational and irrotational components.     

Collective excitations in the unitary correlation operator method and relativistic QRPA studies of exotic nuclei

The collective excitation phenomena in atomic nuclei are studied in two different formulations of the random-phase approximation (RPA): (i) RPA based on correlated realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions constructed within the unitary correlation operator method (UCOM) and (ii) relativistic RPA derived from effective Lagrangians with density-dependent meson-exchange interactions. The former includes the dominant interaction-induced short-range central and tensor correlations by means of unitary transformation. It is shown that UCOM-RPA correlations induced by collective nuclear vibrations recover a part of the residual long-range correlations that are not explicitly included in the UCOM Hartree-Fock ground state. Both RPA models are employed in studies of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance in closed-shell nuclei across the nuclide chart, with an emphasis on the sensitivity of its properties on the constraints for the range of the UCOM correlation functions. Within the relativistic quasiparticle RPA (RQRPA) based on the relativistic Hartree-Bogolyubov model, the occurrence of pronounced low-lying dipole excitations is predicted in nuclei towards the proton drip line. From the analysis of the transition densities and the structure of the RQRPA amplitudes, it is shown that these states correspond to the proton pygmy dipole resonance. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation for the Hubbard model

We develop a time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation (GA) for the Hubbard model analogous to the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (HF) method. This new formalism incorporates ground state correlations of the random phase approximation (RPA) type beyond the GA. Static quantities like ground state energy and double occupancy are in excellent agreement with exact results in one dimension up to moderate coupling and in two dimensions for all couplings. We find a substantial improvement over traditional GA and HF+RPA treatments. Dynamical correlation functions can be computed and are also substantially better than HF+RPA ones and obey well behaved sum rules.     

Collective motion from various aspects

Three methods to describe collective motion, the Random Phase Approximation (RPA), Wigner Function Moments (WFM), and Green’s Function (GF) methods, are compared in detail and their physical content analyzed in the example of a simple model, a harmonic oscillator with quadrupole-quadrupole residual interaction. It is shown that they give identical formulae for eigenfrequencies and transition probabilities of all collective excitations of the model. The exact relation between the RPA and WFM variables and the respective dynamical equations is established. The transformation of the RPA spectrum into one of WFM is explained. The very close connection of the WFM method with the GF method is demonstrated. A differential equation describing the current lines of RPA modes is established and the current lines of the scissors mode are analyzed as a superposition of rotational and irrotational components. The orthogonality of the spurious state to all physical states is proved rigorously. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Skyrme Forces and Their Applications in Low Energy Nuclear Physics

This paper reviews the present status of Skyrme forces and their applications in the field of low energy nuclear physics as an effective nucleon-nucleon interaction. Their applications in the following five domains are presented:1). Hartree-Fock (HF), selfconsistent semiclassical (SCSC) calculations and nuclear ground state properties;2). random phase approximation (RPA), sum rule approach and properties of nuclear giant resonances;3). calculations of microscopic nucleon-nucleus optical potentials and related quantities;4). calculations of nucleus-nucleus optical potentials and fusion barriers;5). multifragmentation, liquid-gas phase transition and instability of hot/compressed nuclei.     

Phase Separation of Penetrable Core Mixtures

A two-component system of penetrable particles interacting via a gaussian core potential is considered, which may serve as a crude model for binary polymer solutions. The pair structure and thermodynamic properties are calculated within the random phase approximation (RPA) and the hypernetted chain (HNC) integral equation. The analytical RPA predictions are in semi-quantitative agreement with the numerical solutions of the HNC approximation, which itself is very accurate for gaussian core systems. A fluid-fluid phase separation is predicted to occur for a broad range of potential parameters. The pair structure exhibits a nontrivial clustering behaviour of the minority component. Similiar conclusions hold for the related model of parabolic core mixtures, which is frequently used in dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations.     

Dominance of the excitation continuum in the longitudinal spectrum of weakly coupled Heisenberg S=1/2 chains

A low-field spin-flop transition in the quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnet BaCu2Si2O7 is exploited to study the polarization dependence of low-energy magnetic excitations. The measured longitudinal spectrum is best described as a single broad continuum, with no sharp "longitudinal mode," in apparent contradiction with the commonly used chain-mean-field and random phase approximation (MF/RPA) theories. The observed behavior is also quite different than that previously seen in the related KCuF3 material, presumably due to a large difference in the relative strength of interchain interactions. The results highlight the limitations of the chain-MF/RPA approach.