arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jan Philip Solovej.
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.
The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) functional has recently received renewed attention as a description of fermionic gases interacting with local pairwise interactions. We present here a rigorous analysis of the BCS functional for general pair interaction potentials. For both zero and positive temperature, we show that the existence of a non-trivial solution of the nonlinear BCS gap equation is equivalent to the existence of a negative eigenvalue of a certain linear operator. From this we conclude the existence of a critical temperature below which the BCS pairing wave function does not vanish identically. For attractive potentials, we prove that the critical temperature is non-zero and exponentially small in the strength of the potential.
We study a mean-field relativistic model which is able to describe both the behavior of finitely many spin-1/2 particles like electrons and of the Dirac sea which is self-consistently polarized in the presence of the real particles. The model is derived from the QED Hamiltonian in Coulomb gauge neglecting the photon field. All our results are non-perturbative and mathematically rigorous.
This book surveys results about the quantum mechanical many-body problem of the Bose gas that have been obtained by the authors over the last seven years. These topics are relevant to current experiments on ultra-cold gases; they are also mathematically rigorous, using many analytic techniques developed over the years to handle such problems. Some of the topics treated are the ground state energy, the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, Bose-Einstein condensation, superfluidity, one-dimensional gases, and rotating gases. The book also provides a pedagogical entry into the field for graduate students and researchers.
We prove upper bounds on the ground state energies of the one- and two-component charged Bose gases. The upper bound for the one-component gas agrees with the high density asymptotic formula proposed by L. Foldy in 1961. The upper bound for the two-component gas agrees in the large particle number limit with the asymptotic formula conjectured by F. Dyson in 1967. Matching asymptotic lower bounds for these systems were proved in references \cite{LS} and \cite{LS2}. The formulas of Foldy and Dyson which are based on Bogolubov's pairing theory have thus been validated.
We study the mean-field approximation of Quantum Electrodynamics, by means of a thermodynamic limit. The QED Hamiltonian is written in Coulomb gauge and does not contain any normal-ordering or choice of bare electron/positron subspaces. Neglecting photons, we define properly this Hamiltonian in a finite box $[-L/2;L/2)^3$, with periodic boundary conditions and an ultraviolet cut-off $Λ$. We then study the limit of the ground state (i.e. the vacuum) energy and of the minimizers as $L$ goes to infinity, in the Hartree-Fock approximation. In case with no external field, we prove that the energy per volume converges and obtain in the limit a translation-invariant projector describing the free Hartree-Fock vacuum. We also define the energy per unit volume of translation-invariant states and prove that the free vacuum is the unique minimizer of this energy. In the presence of an external field, we prove that the difference between the minimum energy and the energy of the free vacuum converges as $L$ goes to infinity. We obtain in the limit the so-called Bogoliubov-Dirac-Fock functional. The Hartree-Fock (polarized) vacuum is a Hilbert-Schmidt perturbation of the free vacuum and it minimizes the Bogoliubov-Dirac-Fock energy.
Recent developments in the physics of low density trapped gases make it worthwhile to verify old, well known results that, while plausible, were based on perturbation theory and assumptions about pseudopotentials. We use and extend recently developed techniques to give a rigorous derivation of the asymptotic formula for the ground state energy of a dilute gas of $N$ fermions interacting with a short-range, positive potential of scattering length $a$. For spin 1/2 fermions, this is $E \sim E^0 + (\hbar^2/2m) 2 πN ρa$, where $E^0$ is the energy of the non-interacting system and $ρ$ is the density.
Recent developments in the physics of low density trapped gases make it worthwhile to verify old, well known results that, while plausible, were based on perturbation theory and assumptions about pseudopotentials. We use and extend recently developed techniques to give a rigorous derivation of the asymptotic formula for the ground state energy of a dilute gas of $N$ fermions interacting with a short-range, positive potential of scattering length $a$. For spin 1/2 fermions, this is $E \sim E^0 + (\hbar^2/2m) 2 πN ρa$, where $E^0$ is the energy of the non-interacting system and $ρ$ is the density. A similar formula holds in 2D, with $ρa$ replaced by $ρ/|\ln(ρa^2)|$. Obviously this 2D energy is not the expectation value of a density-independent pseudopotential.
We study systems containing electrons and nuclei. Based on the fact that the thermodynamic limit exists for systems with Dirichlet boundary conditions, we prove that the same limit is obtained if one imposes other boundary conditions such as Neumann, periodic, or elastic boundary conditions. The result is proven for all limiting sequences of domains which are obtained by scaling a bounded open set, with smooth boundary, except for isolated edges and corners.
This article gives a detailed presentation of the authors' recent results on the ground state properties of the Bose gas. It is a much expanded version of a talk given by one of the authors (E.H.L.) at the conference "Perspectives in Analysis" at the KTH, Stockholm, June 23, 2003. It is based on, but supersedes, the article math-ph/0204027.
In this talk I will discuss some of the techniques that have been developed over the past 35 years to estimate the energy of charged matter. These techniques have been used to solve stability of (fermionic) matter in different contexts, and to control the instability of charged bosonic matter. The final goal will be to indicate how these techniques with certain improvements can be used to prove Dyson's 1967 conjecture for the energy of a charged Bose gas--the sharp $N^{7/5}$ law.
We continue the study of the two-component charged Bose gas initiated by Dyson in 1967. He showed that the ground state energy for $N$ particles is at least as negative as $-CN^{7/5}$ for large $N$ and this power law was verified by a lower bound found by Conlon, Lieb and Yau in 1988. Dyson conjectured that the exact constant $C$ was given by a mean-field minimization problem that used, as input, Foldy's calculation (using Bogolubov's 1947 formalism) for the one-component gas. Earlier we showed that Foldy's calculation is exact insofar as a lower bound of his form was obtained. In this paper we do the same thing for Dyson's conjecture. The two-component case is considerably more difficult because the gas is very non-homogeneous in its ground state.
We prove the ionization conjecture within the Hartree-Fock theory of atoms. More precisely, we prove that, if the nuclear charge is allowed to tend to infinity, the maximal negative ionization charge and the ionization energy of atoms nevertheless remain bounded. Moreover, we show that in Hartree-Fock theory the radius of an atom (properly defined) is bounded independently of its nuclear charge.
Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in cold gases can be turned on and off by an external potential, such as that presented by an optical lattice. We present a model of this phenomenon which we are able to analyze rigorously. The system is a hard core lattice gas at half-filling and the optical lattice is modeled by a periodic potential of strength $λ$. For small $λ$ and temperature, BEC is proved to occur, while at large $λ$ or temperature there is no BEC. At large $λ$ the low-temperature states are in a Mott insulator phase with a characteristic gap that is absent in the BEC phase. The interparticle interaction is essential for this transition, which occurs even in the ground state. Surprisingly, the condensation is always into the $p=0$ mode in this model, although the density itself has the periodicity of the imposed potential.
The Pauli operator describes the energy of a nonrelativistic quantum particle with spin 1/2 in a magnetic field and an external potential. A new Lieb-Thirring type inequality on the sum of the negative eigenvalues is presented. The main feature compared to earlier results is that in the large field regime the present estimate grows with the optimal (first) power of the strength of the magnetic field. As a byproduct of the method, we also obtain an optimal upper bound on the pointwise density of zero energy eigenfunctions of the Dirac operator. The main technical tools are: (i) a new localization scheme for the square of the resolvent of a general class of second order elliptic operators; (ii) a geometric construction of a Dirac operator with a constant magnetic field that approximates the original Dirac operator in a tubular neighborhood of a fixed field line. The errors may depend on the regularity of the magnetic field but they are uniform in the field strength.
The Pauli operator describes the energy of a nonrelativistic quantum particle with spin 1/2 in a magnetic field and an external potential. Bounds on the sum of the negative eigenvalues are called magnetic Lieb-Thirring (MLT) inequalities. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we prove a new MLT inequality in a simple way. Second, we give a short summary of our recent proof of a more refined MLT inequality \cite{ES-IV} and we explain the differences between the two results and methods. The main feature of both estimates, compared to earlier results, is that in the large field regime they grow with the optimal (first) power of the strength of the magnetic field. As a byproduct of the method, we also obtain optimal upper bounds on the pointwise density of zero energy eigenfunctions of the Dirac operator.
Now that the low temperature properties of quantum-mechanical many-body systems (bosons) at low density, $ρ$, can be examined experimentally it is appropriate to revisit some of the formulas deduced by many authors 4-5 decades ago. For systems with repulsive (i.e. positive) interaction potentials the experimental low temperature state and the ground state are effectively synonymous -- and this fact is used in all modeling. In such cases, the leading term in the energy/particle is $2π\hbar^2 a ρ/m$ where $a$ is the scattering length of the two-body potential. Owing to the delicate and peculiar nature of bosonic correlations (such as the strange $N^{7/5}$ law for charged bosons), four decades of research failed to establish this plausible formula rigorously. The only previous lower bound for the energy was found by Dyson in 1957, but it was 14 times too small. The correct asymptotic formula has recently been obtained by us and this work will be presented. The reason behind the mathematical difficulties will be emphasized. A different formula, postulated as late as 1971 by Schick, holds in two-dimensions and this, too, will be shown to be correct. With the aid of the methodology developed to prove the lower bound for the homogeneous gas, two other problems have been successfully addressed. One is the proof by us that the Gross-Pitaevskii equation correctly describes the ground state in the `traps' actually used in the experiments. For this system it is also possible to prove complete Bose condensation, as we have shown. Another topic is a proof that Foldy's 1961 theory of a high density Bose gas of charged particles correctly describes its ground state energy.
We introduce new coherent states and use them to prove semi-classical estimates for Schrödinger operators with regular potentials. This can be further applied to the Thomas-Fermi potential yielding a new proof of the Scott correction for molecules. This is the short version of a paper by the authors archived at math-ph/0208044.