Optimized t-expansion method for the Rabi Hamiltonian

A polemic arose recently about the applicability of the t-expansion method to the calculation of the ground state energy E₀ of the Rabi model. For specific choices of the trial function and very large number of involved connected moments, the t-expansion results are rather poor and exhibit considerable oscillations. In this Letter, we formulate the t-expansion method for trial functions containing two free parameters which capture two exactly solvable limits of the Rabi Hamiltonian. At each order of the t-series, E₀ is assumed to be stationary with respect to the free parameters. A high accuracy of E₀ estimates is achieved for small numbers (5 or 6) of involved connected moments, the relative error being smaller than ¹⁰−4 (0.01%) within the whole parameter space of the Rabi Hamiltonian. A special symmetrization of the trial function enables us to calculate also the first excited energy E₁, with the relative error smaller than ¹⁰−2 (1%).