Many-Body Perturbation Theory for Quantum Crystals. I

Abstract

The possibility of a perturbation treatment for quantum crystals is investigated. It is found that the usual form of the unperturbed Hamiltonian, being a single-particle operator, is not suitable for this situation, since it does not produce correlations necessary in a theory of quantum crystals. These correlations prevent the unperturbed ground state or low excited states from containing multiply occupied lattice sites. An unperturbed Hamiltonian is proposed which generates these correlations but is no longer a single-particle operator. The rules for a diagrammatic representation of a perturbation expansion starting from this unperturbed Hamiltonian are given. They differ from the usual rules for Goldstone diagrams. In particular, the linked-cluster theorem is not valid. Adding and subtracting pairs of mutually cancelling diagrams, in a manner similar to that in which Pauli-principle-violating diagrams are treated in the standard perturbation theory for fermions, we find new rules which, at least at low temperatures, are identical to those for spinless fermions. This result is essentially independent of the statistics of the actual lattice particles. In the case where the lattice particles are actually fermions with spin ½, e.g., ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{He}$, we find an expansion formally identical to the problem of spinless fermions interacting among themselves and with a set of spins ½ localized at lattice sites.