Independence of free energy with respect to boundary conditions (Q2535225)

A quantum system of \(N\) identical particles in a cube \(\Omega\subset \mathrm R^\nu\), interacting by means of a potential \(\Phi\), is considered. In terms of its Hamiltonian \(H_{N,\Omega}\), defined to be a self-adjoint extension of the symmetric operator \[ \mathcal H_{N,\Omega}= -\Delta + \sideset{}{^{\prime}}\sum_{1\le i<j\le N} \Phi(x_i-x_j), \] the specific free energy of the system is introduced by \[ f(\rho,\beta) = \lim_{\substack{\Omega\to \infty \\ N/\Omega\to \rho}} -\frac{1}{\beta} \frac{\ln Z(N, \Omega, \beta)}{N}. \tag{+} \] In the case of Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics \(\mathcal H_{N,\Omega}\) acts on infinitely differentiable functions whose support is in the interior of a cube \(\Omega^n\subset \mathrm R^{N\nu}\) and \[ Z(N, \Omega, \beta) = (N!)^{-1} \text{Sp}\{\exp[-\beta H_{N,\Omega}]\} \] denotes the canonical sum over states (due to the word for word translation called in the English version of the article as ``the small statistical sum''). In Bose-Einstein statistics \(\mathcal H_{N,\Omega}\) acts on symmetric functions with the same properties and \(Z(N, \Omega, \beta) = \text{Sp}\{\exp[-\beta H_{N,\Omega}]\}\). \textit{D. Ruelle} has previously proved [Helv. Phys. Acta 36, 789--799 (1963; Zbl 0121.22701)] the existence of the limit (+) for all statistics for extensions \(H_{N,\Omega}\) generated by zero boundary conditions. In the present article it is proved that the limit (+) exists and is independent of the choice of boundary conditions of a class including periodic and Neumann boundary conditions. In Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics this result is proved for all values of the density \(\rho\), while in the other case it is proved for low densities. The author's results are based on making use of the grand canonical sum over states (``the large statistical sum'') and on the generalization of \textit{J. Ginibre}'s method [J. Math. Phys. 6, 238--251, 1432--1446 (1965; Zbl 0129.43601)].