Generalized random phase approximation and gauge theories. (Q1413154)

Mean-field treatments of Yang-Mills theory face the problem of how to treat the Gauss law constraint. The authors deal with this problem by studying the excited states instead of the ground state. For this purpose the operator approach is extended to the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) -- well-known from nuclear physics. The paper focuses especially on conservation laws, showing how these are translated from the full to the approximated theories. It is shown that the operator approach has the same spectrum as the RPA derived from the time-dependent variational principle, and -- for Yang-Mills theory, is provided a discussion of the moment of inertia connected to the energy contribution of the zero modes to the RPA ground state energy. As well, a line of thought that might be useful to improve the results of the Random Phase Approximation, is pointed out.