Systems with separable many-particle interactions. I

In this paper we give an exact evaluation of the free energy per particle for systems with separable many-particle interactions described by a hamiltonian of the type ? = ∑_kT(k) + NP (N^-1 ∑_kV(k)), where P is an arbitrary polynomial. In the proof use is made of a fundamental theorem due to Bogoliubov Jr. for ferromagnetic quadratic operators. The free energy can be obtained from a trial hamiltonian, which is linear in the operators T and V.