# 1 Plots of 𝜑-𝜑₀ (dotted line), 𝜑-𝜑₁ (dashed line), 𝜑-𝜑₂ (thin line) and 𝜑-𝜑_∞ (thick line) as functions of 𝐽. The action is given in () with couplings 𝑔₃=0, 𝑔₄=1.

Improved Gaussian Approximation

A. Balaž, A. Belić and A. Bogojević

Institute of Physics   
P.O.B. 57, Belgrade 11001, Yugoslavia

## Abstract

In a recently developed approximation technique  for quantum field theory the standard one-loop result is used as a seed for a recursive formula that gives a sequence of improved Gaussian approximations for the generating functional. In this paper we work with the generic $`\varphi ^3+\varphi ^4`$ model in $`d=0`$ dimensions. We compare the first, and simplest, approximation in the above sequence with the one-loop and two-loop approximations, as well as the exact results (calculated numericaly).

The central object in quantum field theory is the generating functional $`Z[J]`$. Functional derivatives of $`Z[J]`$ with respect to the external fields $`J(x)`$ give the Green’s functions of the theory. The generating functional is determined from the (Euclidian) action $`S[\varphi ]`$ through the path integral

$$Z[J]=[d\varphi ]e^{\left(S[\varphi ]{\scriptscriptstyle 𝑑xJ(x)\varphi (x)}\right)}.$$
(1)   
The integration measure is, formaly, simply $`[d\varphi ]=_{x^d}d\varphi (x)`$, where $`d`$ is the dimension of space-time. In this paper we will work with models in $`d=0`$ dimensions. In $`d=0`$ functionals become functions, and the path integral reverts to a single definite integral over the whole real line

$$Z(J)=𝑑\varphi e^{\left(S(\varphi )J\varphi \right)}.$$
(2)   
Two further important objects are $`W(J)`$ — the generator of connected diagrams (or free energy)

$$Z(J)=Z(0)e^{W(J)},$$
(3)   
and the quantum average of the field $`\phi =\varphi =\frac{}{J}W(J)`$.

In the Gaussian approximation, we Taylor expand the action in the path integral around some reference point $`\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}}`$, and keep terms that are at most quadratic in $`\varphi \varphi _{\mathrm{ref}}`$. The integral in (2) is now a Gaussian and we find

$$W_{\mathrm{Gauss}}(J,\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}})=S(\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}})J\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}}+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}S^{\prime \prime }(\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}})\frac{1}{2}\frac{(S^{}(\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}})J)^2}{S^{\prime \prime }(\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}})}.$$
(4)   
For this approximation to make sense, the integral must get its dominant contribution from the vicinity of the reference point $`\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}}`$. The standard Gaussian approximation (loop expansion) corresponds to the choice $`\varphi _{\mathrm{ref}}=\varphi _{\mathrm{class}}(J)`$, where $`\varphi _{\mathrm{class}}`$ is the solution of the classical equation of motion

$`S^{}=J`$. The classical solution is the maximum of the integrand in (2).

In a previous paper  we expanded the integrand around the average field $`\phi `$. As we have shown, although the classical solution gives the maximum of the integrand, expansion around $`\phi `$ gives a better approximation for the area under the curve. The Gaussian approximation around the average field $`\phi `$ is simply

$$W_{\mathrm{Gauss}}(J,\phi )=S(\phi )J\phi +\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}S^{\prime \prime }(\phi )\frac{1}{2}\frac{(S^{}(\phi )J)^2}{S^{\prime \prime }(\phi )}.$$
(5)   
To be able to calculate this *in closed form* we need to know $`\phi (J)`$, which is tantamount to knowing how to do the theory exactly, since $`\phi `$ and its derivatives give all the connected Green’s functions. The use of equation (5) comes about when one solves it iteratively. Using the definition of $`\phi `$ in terms of $`W`$, as well as equation (4) we obtain the following iterative process

$$\phi _{n+1}(J)=\frac{d}{dJ}W_{\mathrm{Gauss}}(J,\phi _n(J)).$$
(6)   
For the seed of this iteration we chose the classical field, i.e. $`\phi _0=\varphi _{\mathrm{class}}`$. In this way one obtains a sequence of points $`\phi _0,\phi _1,\phi _2,\mathrm{}`$ or equivallently of approximations to the connected generating functional $`W_1,W_2,W_3,\mathrm{}`$ given by $`W_{n+1}(J)=W_{\mathrm{Gauss}}(J,\phi _n(J))`$. In  we have shown that this sequence gives better and better approximations and converges (though slowly) to the best Gaussian approximation $`\phi _{\mathrm{}}`$. This is shown in Figure 1.

Note that $`\phi _{\mathrm{}}`$ is still not equal to the exact result $`\phi `$. The reason for this is obvious: We used the Gaussian approximation $`W_{\mathrm{Gauss}}`$ in defining our recursive relation, and there is no reason to expect that this converges to the exact result.

So far we have seen that we can improve on the usual loop expansion. However, the sequence of improved Gaussian approximations converges very slowly. For this reason it is interesting to look at the first approximations in this sequence and compare them to standard approximation schemes. As we have seen, $`\phi _0=\varphi _{\mathrm{class}}`$, so $`W_1(J)`$ is just the one-loop result. Our first new approximation is therefore $`W_2(J)=W_{\mathrm{Gauss}}(J,\phi _1)`$, where $`\phi _1=\frac{d}{dJ}W_1`$. The nice thing about this approximation is that it is only a bit more complicated than the one-loop result. From now on we will study this approximation, and compare it to one-loop and two-loop results, as well as to the exact results that have been calculated numericaly. In what follows we will designate $`W_2`$ as the improved Gaussian approximation.

For our comparison we have looked at the (full) $`n`$-particle Green’s functions

$$G_n=\frac{𝑑\varphi \varphi ^ne^{S(\varphi )}}{𝑑\varphi e^{S(\varphi )}}.$$
(7)   
The model we considered was

$$S(\varphi )=\frac{1}{2}\varphi ^2+\frac{1}{3!}g_3\varphi ^3+\frac{1}{4!}g_4\varphi ^4.$$
(8)   
All our calculations have been done for $`g_4>\frac{3}{8}g_3^2`$ where the above action has a unique minimum at $`\varphi =0`$. For the two-point function the one-loop approximation is given in Figure 2.

In this plot we see the expected perturbative region in the vicinity of the origin. What is not immediately obvious is the meaning of the two regions sprouting off to large values of the coupling constants. Still, it is rather easy to give a simple hand-waving argument: The one-loop result for $`G_n`$ is an $`(n1)^{\mathrm{st}}`$ order polynomial in the couplings, while the exact result is a relatively slowly varying, monotonous function (on the range of interest). As a consequence, $`\delta G_n^{1\mathrm{loop}}`$ can vanish on (at most) $`n`$ curves in the $`g_3,g_4`$ plane. The sprouting regions in Figure 2 flank these two curves. A similar plot of $`\delta G_1^{1\mathrm{loop}}`$ has one sprouting region. What is important to note is that the sprouting regions corresponding to different Green’s function have nothing to do with each other. In fact, they are just a manifestation of the old saw that a stopped clock gives the correct time of day twice during each day. The same plot for the two-loop and improved Gaussian approximations is shown in Figure 3.

As before, we again have central (perturbative) regions and a certain number of sprouting regions. These plots clearly show that the improved Gaussian approximation outperforms both the one-loop and two-loop results. Figure 4 gives the same comparison of one-loop, two-loop and improved results for the one-point Green’s function.

We have looked at all the Green’s function from $`G_1`$ to $`G_6`$. In all cases the improved Gaussian approximation gives the best result, however the advantage becomes less marked when one looks at higher Green’s function.

As a conclusion, we have shown in this paper that even the simplest improved Gaussian approximation gives better agreement with exact results than both one-loop and two-loop approximations. At the same time, the computational cost of the improved Gaussian approximation is negligibly greater than that of the one-loop result, and significantly smaller than of the two-loop result. In our previous paper we looked at the benefits of the improved Gaussian approximation both from the analytic and numerical (Monte Carlo) sides. We are currently working  on extending those results to interesting models in $`d1`$.