An exact one-particle theory of bosonic excitations: From a generalized Hohenberg-Kohn theorem to convexified N-representability

Abstract

Motivated by the Penrose-Onsager criterion for Bose-Einstein condensation we propose a functional theory for targeting low-lying excitation energies of bosonic quantum systems through the one-particle picture. For this, we employ an extension of the Rayleigh-Ritz variational principle to ensemble states with spectrum $\boldsymbol{w}$ and prove a corresponding generalization of the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem: The underlying one-particle reduced density matrix determines all properties of systems of $N$ identical particles in their $\boldsymbol{w}$-ensemble states. Then, to circumvent the $v$-representability problem common to functional theories, and to deal with energetic degeneracies, we resort to the Levy-Lieb constrained search formalism in combination with an exact convex relaxation. The corresponding bosonic one-body $\boldsymbol{w}$-ensemble $N$-representability problem is solved comprehensively. Remarkably, this reveals a complete hierarchy of bosonic exclusion principle constraints in conceptual analogy to Pauli's exclusion principle for fermions and recently discovered generalizations thereof.