Renormalization of trial wave functionals using the effective potential

We introduce a procedure for renormalizing trial variational wave functionals in Fermi and Bose field theories in terms of zero-momentum $n$-point functions. The method relies on a variational calculation of the effective potential. Two model field theories, $\lambda {\phi }^4$ and $g\overline{\psi }\psi \phi$, are treated explicitly with simple trial wave functionals for the Fermi and Bose vacuums.