Self-Consistent Approximations in Many-Body Systems

This paper investigates the criteria for maintenance of the macroscopic conservation laws of number, momentum, and energy by approximate two-particle correlation functions in many-body systems. The methods of generating such approximations are the same as in a previous paper. However, the derivations of the conservation laws given here clarify both why the approximation method works and the connection between the macroscopic conservation laws and those at the vertices.Conserving nonequilibrium approximations are based on self-consistent approximations to the one-particle Green's function. The same condition that ensures that the nonequilibrium theory be conserving also ensures that the equilibrium approximation has the following properties. The several common methods for determining the partition function from the one-particle Green's function all lead to the same result. When applied to a zero-temperature normal fermion system, the approximation procedure maintains the Hugenholtz-Van Hove theorem. Consequently, the self-consistent version of Brueckner's nuclear matter theory obeys this theorem.