The second order upper bound for the ground energy of a Bose gas (Q841146)

The ground state energy is a fundamental property of a quantum system. Consider \(N\) bosons in a finite box \(\Lambda = [0,L]^3\subset {\mathbb R}^3\) with periodic boundary conditions, interacting via a two-body smooth repulsive short range potential. In the low density limit, it is known that the leading term of the ground state energy per particle \(e_0(\rho)\) is identified to be \(4\pi a \rho\) by \textit{F. J. Dyson} [Phys. Rev., II. Ser. 106, 20--26 (1957; Zbl 0077.23503)] and\textit{E. H. Lieb} and \textit{J. Yngvason} [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 2504-2507 (1998), cf. in: Mathematical results in statistical mechanics. Proceedings, Marseille, France, July 27-31, 1998. Singapore: World Scientific. 349--357 (1999; Zbl 1017.82006)], where \(a\) is the scattering length of the two-body potential and \(\rho\) is the density. This paper proves the following upper bound on the ground state energy per particle \[ \varlimsup_{\rho\to 0}\; \varlimsup_{L\to\infty,\, N/L^3\to \rho}\; \frac{e_0(\rho)-4\pi a \rho}{(4 \pi a)^{5/2}\, \rho^{3/2}}\leq \frac{16}{15\pi^2}. \] Previously, the upper bound with an extra constant factor \(C>1\) was obtained by \textit{L. Erdös} et al. [Ground-state energy of a low-density Bose gas: a second-order upper bound. Phys. Rev. A 78, 053627 (2008; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.78.053627})]. The result proves the upper bound predicted by \textit{T. D. Lee} and \textit{C. N. Yang} [Many body problem in quantum mechanics and quantum statistical mechanics. Phys. Rev. 105(3), 1119--1120 (1957; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRev.105.1119})] and \textit{T. D. Lee} et al. [Phys. Rev., II. Ser. 106, 1135--1145 (1957; Zbl 0077.45003)]. The main tool in the proof is a modified Bogoliubov approximation.