Fermi Surface and Some Simple Equilibrium Properties of a System of Interacting Fermions

Abstract

It is shown that certain analytical properties of the propagators of many-fermion systems lead rigorously to the existence of sharp discontinuities of the momentum distribution at absolute zero. This discontinuity in the momentum distribution is used to define a Fermi surface for a system of interacting fermions. It is shown that the volume of this surface in momentum space is unaffected by the interaction. The same analytic properties are shown to lead, by direct statistical mechanical arguments, to simple expressions for the low-temperature heat capacity, the spin paramagnetism, and the compressibility of the system. These expressions are very analogous to the corresponding expressions for noninteracting particles. Finally, it is shown how the whole formalism may be generalized when an external periodic potential is present (band case).