Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,082 questions , 2,232 unanswered
5,353 answers , 22,789 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  How the BCS superconductors violate the Gell-Mann-Low's Theorem?

+ 2 like - 0 dislike
1457 views

Some preliminary considerations:

  1. $\mathcal{H} = \mathcal{H}_0+V$: the full Hamiltonian;
  2. $V$: the perturbation part;
  3. $\mathcal{H}_0$: the non-interacting Hamiltonian,whose eigenvalue problem can be solved exactly;
  4. $|\eta_0\rangle$: the ground state of $\mathcal{H}_0$;
  5. $U_{\alpha}^D$: the time evolution operator in Dirac picture;
  6. $e^{-\alpha |t|}  (\alpha>0)$ : the adiabatic switching factor,by which we can relate $\mathcal{H}$ and $\mathcal{H}_0$:

$$\lim_{t\rightarrow\pm\infty} \mathcal{H}_\alpha = \mathcal{H}_0\quad ;\quad \lim_{t \rightarrow 0} \mathcal{H}_\alpha = \mathcal{H} \quad (\mathcal{H}_\alpha = \mathcal{H}_0 +e^{-\alpha |t|} V \quad \alpha>0 ) $$

Then the famous  Gell-Mann-Low's theorem tell us if the statement

$$ \lim_{\alpha\rightarrow 0} \dfrac{U_\alpha^D(0,-\infty)|\eta_0\rangle}{\langle \eta_0|U^D_\alpha(0,-\infty)|\eta_0\rangle} = \lim_{\alpha\rightarrow 0} \dfrac{|\psi_\alpha^D(0)\rangle}{\langle\eta_0|\psi^D_\alpha(0)\rangle} \tag{1} $$

exists for every order of perturbation theory,then it is an exact eigenstate of $\mathcal{H}$.Very often we also assume that no crossings of the states occur during their evolution from the free states $|\eta_0\rangle$, namely the statement $(1)$ will be the ground state of $\mathcal{H}$.

My question is about how the BCS superconductors violates this theorem;in that case,the interaction $V$ leads to a new type of ground state with different symmetry and a lower energy than the adiabatic ground state $(1)$.

asked Aug 31, 2017 in Theoretical Physics by Kohn (15 points) [ no revision ]
recategorized Oct 7, 2017 by dimension10

I think that the potential must be relatively compact with respect to the kinetic part, in order that the theorem holds. For BCS in the thermodynamic limit, this is not the case.

1 Answer

+ 0 like - 0 dislike

I have no definite answer, but I would guess that if the Gell-Mann-Low theorem "breaks down", then because the assumptions are not met, i.e. the limit does not exist. I mean, that's the only thing that can happen to mathematical theorems…

Also, a spontaneously broken symmetry is not necessarily an indicator that something is wrong with the theorem, either. Symmetry breaking usually means that there is a manifold of degenerate ground states, parametrized by the order parameter. The Gell-Mann low theorem could very well give you an eigenstate that is a symmetrized superposition of the eigenstates.

The best way to check what is going is probably to look at an interacting toy model with finitely many states.

answered Sep 1, 2017 by Greg Graviton (775 points) [ no revision ]

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysics$\varnothing$verflow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...