Electron correlations. II. Ground-state results at low and metallic densities

Abstract

In this second work in a series of papers the coupled-cluster or $\exp \mathrm{}\left(S\right)\mathrm{}$ formalism is applied to the problem of ground-state correlations in the one-component Fermi plasma. The main approximation employed is the so-called SUB2 approximation for the two-body subsystem correlation operator $S_2$ which provides a measure of the two-particle—two-hole component in the true ground-state wave function, and in which the coupling to larger subsystems is neglected. The SUB2 equations for Fermi systems are brought into tractable form by a "state-averaging" procedure which we develop by analogy with the comparable Bose equations, and which is shown by comparison with earlier exact results to be accurate in the metallic density regime at about the 1% level. Our final results for metallic densities include the completely integrated and self-consistent effects of the terms which by themselves generate (i) the random-phase approximation (RPA) and its associated exact long-range screening effects, (ii) the extra random-phase approximation exchange terms necessary to keep the RPA explicitly antisymmetric, (iii) the self-consistent particle-particle ladders (LAD) that describe two-particle scattering within the many-body medium and which describe the exact short-range behavior, (iv) a class of particle-hole ladder terms, and (v) the self-consistent hole-potential terms. Particular attention is paid to the important effects caused by the interference at intermediate separations of the long-range RPA and the short-range LAD effects. By comparison with recent and essentially exact stochastic simulations of the many-body Schrödinger equation, our results are seen to be accurate to about 1% for metallic densities, and hence to provide what is probably the currently best microscopic description available for this system. We show also that even in the low-density limit the SUB2 approximation provides a good "translationally-invariant-solid" description of both charged Fermi and Bose systems in this exact Wigner crystal regime.