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The unreasonable accuracy of the Jastrow approach in many-body physics

Chemical Physics 2007-05-23 v1 Nuclear Theory Atomic Physics General Physics

Abstract

We investigate in a simple model whether a Jastrow-based approach for a many-body system containing two-body interactions can be exact. By comparison with recent assertions to the contrary, we find that in general the exact wave function is \emph{not} purely two-body correlated. Nonetheless, we show that the energy estimate obtained from the calculations is as accurate as it can possibly be, suggesting why Jastrow wave functions are such a good choice.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0307069,
  title  = {The unreasonable accuracy of the Jastrow approach in many-body physics},
  author = {Niels R. Walet and R. F. Bishop},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0307069},
  year   = {2007}
}

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4 pages