The Collective Description of Many-Particle Systems (A Generalized Theory of Hartree Fields)

A systematic method of handling a system composed of a number of particles and an intermediary Bose field has been developed. The main idea consists in linearizing the interaction by taking certain average values so that it may be amalgamated to the free Hamiltonian. Only the remaining fluctuational interaction is treated by perturbation theory. The effect of the averaged interaction appears in the form of two generalized Hartree fields associated with the particle and the Bose quantum, respectively. The self-consistent equations for these Hartree fields are derived from an analysis of the $S$ matrix, keeping close analogy to the renormalization procedure in quantum electrodynamics. The formalism includes such approximations as the Bohm-Pines, Hartree-Fock, and Thomas-Fermi theories as special cases. General criteria about the validity and plausibility of the picture involved in the present formulation are discussed from various points of view.