Nambu-Goldstone modes in the random phase approximation

Abstract

I show that the kernel of the random phase approximation (RPA) matrix based on a stable Hartree, Hartree-Fock, Hartree-Bogolyubov, or Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov mean field solution is decomposed into a subspace with a basis whose vectors are associated, in the equivalent formalism of a classical Hamiltonian homogeneous of second degree in canonical coordinates, with conjugate momenta of cyclic coordinates (Nambu-Goldstone modes) and a subspace with a basis whose vectors are associated with pairs of a coordinate and its conjugate momentum neither of which enters the Hamiltonian at all. In a subspace complementary to the one spanned by all these coordinates including the conjugate coordinates of the Nambu-Goldstone momenta, the RPA matrix behaves as in the case of a zero-dimensional kernel. This result was derived very recently by Nakada as a corollary to a general analysis of RPA matrices based on both stable and unstable mean field solutions. The present proof does not rest on Nakada's general results.