Adiabatic continuity and broken symmetry in many-electron systems: A variational perspective

DOI10.1002/ANDP.201100044zbMATH Open1233.81017arXiv1110.6348OpenAlexW3101534160MaRDI QIDQ3100715FDOQ3100715

Publication date: 21 November 2011

Published in: Annalen der Physik (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Variational wave functions are very useful for describing the panoply of ground states found in interacting many-electron systems. Some particular trial states are "adiabatically" linked to a reference state, from which they borrow the essential properties. A prominent example is the Gutzwiller ansatz, where one starts with the filled Fermi sea. A simple soluble example, the anisotropic XY chain, illustrates the adiabatic continuity of this class of wave functions. To describe symmetry breaking, one has to modify the reference state accordingly. Alternatively, a quantum phase transition can be described by a pair of variational wave functions, starting at weak and strong coupling, respectively.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.6348

zbMATH Keywords

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Time-dependent Schrödinger equations and Dirac equations (35Q41) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Symmetry breaking in quantum theory (81R40) Interacting particle systems in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C22) Dynamic and nonequilibrium phase transitions (general) in statistical mechanics (82C26)

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