Thermodynamics of spin-1/2 fermions on coarse temporal lattices using automated algebra

Abstract

Recent advances in automated algebra for dilute Fermi gases in the virial expansion, where coarse temporal lattices were found advantageous, motivate the study of more general computational schemes that could be applied to arbitrary densities, beyond the dilute limit where the virial expansion is physically reasonable. We propose here such an approach by developing what we call the Quantum Thermodynamics Computational Engine (QTCE). In QTCE, the imaginary-time direction is discretized and the interaction is accounted for via a quantum cumulant expansion, where the coefficients are expressed in terms of noninteracting expectation values. The aim of QTCE is to enable the systematic resolution of interaction effects at fixed temporal discretization, as in lattice Monte Carlo calculations, but here in an algebraic rather than numerical fashion. Using this approach, in combination with numerical integration techniques (both known and alternative ones proposed here), we explore the thermodynamics of spin-1/2 fermions, focusing on the unitary limit in 3 spatial dimensions, but also exploring the effects of continuously varying the spatial dimension below 3. We find that, remarkably, extremely coarse temporal lattices, when suitably renormalized using known results from the virial expansion, yield stable partial sums for QTCE's cumulant expansion which are qualitatively and quantitatively correct in wide regions, compared with known experimental results.