Anharmonic phonons and structural phase transitions

Exact results for the order parameter and the meansquare displacement as functions of temperature are given for a quantum interacting phonon Hamiltonian with quartic anharmonicities. Upper bounds for the transition temperature are also derived. Approximate theories including the mean field approximation, the random phase approximation (or quasiharmonic approximation) and the self consistent approach (using Blume-Hubbard scheme) are compared with our exact results. The mean field approximation for the meansquare displacement is found to violate our bounds.The classical value is shown to form a lower bound for the kinetic energy. Upper bounds for the kinetic energy are obtained showing the region of temperature in which the use of the high temperature expansion of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem is justified. Comparison of the Hamiltonian and our results with electron-paramagnetic-resonance measurements are discussed.