On the Restoration of Symmetry in Paired Fermion Systems

Abstract

We consider the problem of symmetry restoration as treated by the method of variation after projection (VAP) on good quantum numbers. We show that for compact groups, the convergence of the connected-linked expansion of the VAP kernels over the physically relevant interval of integration of the pairing gauge angle is not guaranteed. We propose instead a method which generates approximations of increasing precision which are periodic with respect to the gauge angle while differing from truncations of the Fourier expansion of the VAP kernels. For the projection on good particle number in paired fermion systems, this new approach is shown to be equivalent to an expansion in powers of the pairing tensor. For the lowest order approximation, an analytical integration over the gauge angle is performed explicitly. It provides the algebraic forms of the single particle Hamiltonian and of the pairing field entering generalized Hartree–Fock–Bogoljubov equations. Contrary to most approximations, the validity of the expressions for the energy and mean values of operators thus obtained is not a priori restricted where the fluctuation of the operator associated with the broken symmetry is large. We also derive the first-order correction to the pairing-order parameter. We test the quality of the proposed method on a non-trivial soluble model.