Analytic, group-theoretic wave functions for confined, correlated \(N\)-body systems with general two-body interactions (Q2498786)

The authors devise a method to approximate the lowest order \(S\)-wave function of a quantum system with \(N\) identical confined particles in \(D\) dimensions. This they do in four steps: 1. transformation of the Hamiltonian to internal coordinates 2. scaling and dimensional scaling of the equation 3. Expansion in \(1/D\) around the totally symmetric \(D=\infty\) limit 4. Reduction and simplification of all expressions by using symmetry coordinates derived from irreducible representations of \({\mathcal S}_N\), the symmetric group of \(N\) particles. The basic Hamiltonian consists of the single particle Hamiltonians, kinetic energy plus spherical symmetric confining potential, and \(N (N-1)/2\) identical pair interactions. As internal coordinates the radii \(r_i\) from the center of the confining potential and the relative angles \(\gamma_{ij}\) are used. For the perturbation analysis the radii are scaled by a quadratic dimension factor \(\kappa (D)\) which ``freezes'' the particles at large \(D\). This ``frozen'' ground state is assumed to be totally symmetric, i.e. \(r_i =\overline{r}\), \(\gamma_{ij} = \overline{\gamma}\). The first order corrections can then be considered as small oscillations around this state. To obtain the normal mode vibrations the \(FG\)-matrix method of \textit{Wilson} and \textit{Decius} [Molecular Vibrations: The Theory of Infrared and Raman Vibrational Spectra, McGraw-Hill, New York (1955)] is used. The key reduction of this problem is achieved however by systematically using the \({\mathcal S}_N\)-symmetry of the underlying problem. Through the use of representations of \({\mathcal S}_N\) the authors introduce symmetry coordinates which greatly simplify the problem. The determination of the possible irreducible representations, corresponding symmetry coordinates and transformations is in fact the major part of this paper. Unlike conventional many particle perturbation schemes like Hartree-Fock or Gross-Pitaevskii methods this scheme is not restricted to weak interactions. Thus it also transcends mean field results. It would have been advantageous for this paper to include at least one application. The discussion and motivation for the dimensional scaling should have been more explicit also.