Resolvent operator approach to many-body perturbation theory. I. Closed shells

Abstract
In this paper, we develop a time‐dependent approach to many‐body perturbation theory for closed shells based on the resolvent of the Schrödinger equation. We introduce a quantity S(t) = i<φ‖exp [−i(HE0)t]‖ψ≳/<φ‖ψ≳, where φ and ψ are, respectively, the unperturbed and exact wave functions for the system and E0 is the unperturbed energy. The Fourier transform of S(t), S(ω) = <φ‖(ω+E0H)−1‖ψ≳/ <φ‖ψ≳, is a matrix element of the resolvent containing the exact function ψ and, thus, has a pole at ω = (EE0), the correlation energy. Starting from a time‐dependent perturbation expansion of S(t) via the Gellman–Low adiabatic theorem, we have obtained a Dyson‐like equation: S−1(ω) = S−10(ω)+Σ<φ‖ψ≳ for S(ω). Such a derivation requires judicious grouping of terms of the perturbation series for S(t). It has been shown that specific regroupings of the terms of S(t) into appropriate ’’top’’ and ’’bottom’’ parts and corresponding time‐integration procedures yield a Σ which generates the Brillouin–Wigner (BW) or Rayleigh–Schrödinger (RS) energy series. Σ for both the cases are identified as the ’’top’’ parts. The characteristic features of the BW series, namely, the appearance of disconnected and ω‐dependent diagrams is to be contrasted with that of the RS series, which contains connected and ω‐independent diagrams only, and both emerge naturally as a consequence of the dissection procedure into appropriate top and bottom parts.