arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Christian Hainzl.
We reconsider the norm resolvent limit of $-Δ+ V_\ell$ with $V_\ell$ tending to a point interaction in three dimensions. We are mainly interested in potentials $V_\ell$ modelling short range interactions of cold atomic gases. In order to ensure stability the interaction $V_\ell$ is required to have a strong repulsive core, such that $\lim_{\ell \to 0} \int V_\ell >0$. This situation is not covered in the previous literature.
Using the Pauli-Villars regularization and arguments from convex analysis, we construct solutions to the classical time-independent Maxwell equations in Dirac's vacuum, in the presence of small external electromagnetic sources. The vacuum is not an empty space, but rather a quantum fluctuating medium which behaves as a nonlinear polarizable material. Its behavior is described by a Dirac equation involving infinitely many particles. The quantum corrections to the usual Maxwell equations are nonlinear and nonlocal. Even if photons are described by a purely classical electromagnetic field, the resulting vacuum polarization coincides to first order with that of full Quantum Electrodynamics.
We review recent results about the derivation and the analysis of two Hartree-Fock-type models for the polarization of vacuum. We pay particular attention to the variational construction of a self-consistent polarized vacuum, and to the physical agreement between our non-perturbative construction and the perturbative description provided by Quantum Electrodynamics.
We study the Hartree-Fock approximation of graphene in infinite volume, with instantaneous Coulomb interactions. First we construct its translation-invariant ground state and we recover the well-known fact that, due to the exchange term, the effective Fermi velocity is logarithmically divergent at zero momentum. In a second step we prove the existence of a ground state in the presence of local defects and we discuss some properties of the linear response to an external electric field. All our results are non perturbative.
We show that the time-evolution of the wave function describing the macroscopic variations of the pair density in BCS theory can be approximated, in the dilute limit, by a time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
We study the BCS gap equation for a Fermi gas with unequal population of spin-up and spin-down states. For $\cosh(δ_μ/T) \leq 2$, with $T$ the temperature and $δ_μ$ the chemical potential difference, the question of existence of non-trivial solutions can be reduced to spectral properties of a linear operator, similar to the unpolarized case studied previously in \cite{FHNS,HHSS,HS}. For $\cosh(δ_μ/T) > 2$ the phase diagram is more complicated, however. We derive upper and lower bounds for the critical temperature, and study their behavior in the small coupling limit.
We consider the low density limit of a Fermi gas in the BCS approximation. We show that if the interaction potential allows for a two-particle bound state, the system at zero temperature is well approximated by the Gross-Pitaevskii functional, describing a Bose-Einstein condensate of fermion pairs.
In a recent paper we give the first rigorous derivation of the celebrated Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory, starting from the microscopic Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) model. Here we present our results in the simplified case of a one-dimensional system of particles interacting via a delta-potential.
We give the first rigorous derivation of the celebrated Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory, starting from the microscopic Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) model. Close to the critical temperature, GL arises as an effective theory on the macroscopic scale. The relevant scaling limit is semiclassical in nature, and semiclassical analysis, with minimal regularity assumptions, plays an important part in our proof.
We consider a spatially homogeneous and isotropic system of Dirac particles coupled to classical gravity. The dust and radiation dominated closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker space-times are recovered as limiting cases. We find a mechanism where quantum oscillations of the Dirac wave functions can prevent the formation of the big bang or big crunch singularity. Thus before the big crunch, the collapse of the universe is stopped by quantum effects and reversed to an expansion, so that the universe opens up entering a new era of classical behavior. Numerical examples of such space-times are given, and the dependence on various parameters is discussed. Generically, one has a collapse after a finite number of cycles. By fine-tuning the parameters we construct an example of a space-time which is time-periodic, thus running through an infinite number of contraction and expansion cycles.
We prove finite-time blowup for spherically symmetric and negative energy solutions of Hartree-Fock and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov type equations, which describe the evolution of attractive fermionic systems (e. g. white dwarfs). Our main results are twofold: First, we extend the recent blowup result of [Hainzl and Schlein, Comm. Math. Phys. \textbf{287} (2009), 705--714] to Hartree-Fock equations with infinite rank solutions and a general class of Newtonian type interactions. Second, we show the existence of finite-time blowup for spherically symmetric solutions of a Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov model, where an angular momentum cutoff is introduced. We also explain the key difficulties encountered in the full Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory.
This article is the first in a series dealing with the thermodynamic properties of quantum Coulomb systems. In this first part, we consider a general real-valued function $E$ defined on all bounded open sets of $\R^3$. Our aim is to give sufficient conditions such that $E$ has a thermodynamic limit. This means that the limit $E(Ω_n)|Ω_n|^{-1}$ exists for all `regular enough' sequence $Ω_n$ with growing volume, $|Ω_n|\to\ii$, and is independent of the considered sequence. The sufficient conditions presented in our work all have a clear physical interpretation. In the next paper, we show that the free energies of many different quantum Coulomb systems satisfy these assumptions, hence have a thermodynamic limit.
In a previous paper, we have developed a general theory of thermodynamic limits. We apply it here to three different Coulomb quantum systems, for which we prove the convergence of the free energy per unit volume. The first system is the crystal for which the nuclei are classical particles arranged periodically in space and only the electrons are quantum particles. We recover and generalize a previous result of Fefferman. In the second example, both the nuclei and the electrons are quantum particles, submitted to a periodic magnetic field. We thereby extend a seminal result of Lieb and Lebowitz. Finally, in our last example we take again classical nuclei but optimize their position. To our knowledge such a system was never treated before. The verification of the assumptions introduced in the previous paper uses several tools which have been introduced before in the study of large quantum systems. In particular, an electrostatic inequality of Graf and Schenker is one main ingredient of our new approach.
We study the eigenvalues of Schrödinger type operators $T + λV$ and their asymptotic behavior in the small coupling limit $λ\to 0$, in the case where the symbol of the kinetic energy, $T(p)$, strongly degenerates on a non-trivial manifold of codimension one.
We present two recent works on the thermodynamic limit of quantum Coulomb systems, in which we provided a general method allowing to show the existence of the limit for many different models.
We derive upper and lower bounds on the critical temperature $T_c$ and the energy gap $Ξ$ (at zero temperature) for the BCS gap equation, describing spin 1/2 fermions interacting via a local two-body interaction potential $λV(x)$. At weak coupling $λ\ll 1$ and under appropriate assumptions on $V(x)$, our bounds show that $T_c \sim A \exp(-B/λ)$ and $Ξ\sim C \exp(-B/λ)$ for some explicit coefficients $A$, $B$ and $C$ depending on the interaction $V(x)$ and the chemical potential $μ$. The ratio $A/C$ turns out to be a universal constant, independent of both $V(x)$ and $μ$. Our analysis is valid for any $μ$; for small $μ$, or low density, our formulas reduce to well-known expressions involving the scattering length of $V(x)$.
We prove that the critical temperature for the BCS gap equation is given by $T_c = μ(8/πe^{γ-2} + o(1)) e^{π/(2\sqrt μa)}$ in the low density limit $μ\to 0$. The formula holds for a suitable class of interaction potentials with negative scattering length $a$ in the absence of bound states.
We prove blow-up in finite time for radially symmetric solutions to the pseudo-relativistic Hartree-Fock equation with negative energy. The non-linear Hartree-Fock equation is commonly used in the physics literature to describe the dynamics of white dwarfs. We extend thereby recent results by Fröhlich and Lenzmann, who established in \cite{FL1,FL2} blow-up for solutions to the pseudo-relativistic Hartree equation. As key ingredient for handling the exchange term we use the conservation of the expectation of the square of the angular momentum operator.