Renormalization of states and quasiparticles in many-body downfolding

A Annabelle Canestraight (Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California 1 , Santa Barbara, California 93106-9510,) Z Zhen Huang L Lin Lin V Vojtech Vlcek (Department of Materials, University of California 4 , Santa Barbara, California 93106-9510,)

Abstract

We explore the principles of many-body Hamiltonian complexity reduction via downfolding on an effective low-dimensional representation. We show that the renormalization factor provides a unique measure of the quality of the compression as it directly represents the projection between the approximate stationary state of the many-body Hamiltonian and the full many-body wavefunction. Hence, the renormalization factor is a measure of fidelity between the effective (reduced-rank) description and the full many-body treatment for arbitrary (i.e., ground and excited) states. When the entire problem is mapped on a system of interacting quasiparticles [Romanova et al., npj Comput. Mater. 9, 126 (2023)], the effective Hamiltonians can faithfully reproduce the physics only when a clear energy scale separation exists between the subsystems and their environment. We also demonstrate that it is necessary to include quasiparticle renormalization at distinct energy scales, capturing the distinct interaction between subsystems and their surrounding environments. Numerical results from simple, exactly solvable models highlight the limitations and strengths of this approach, particularly for ground and low-lying excited states. This work lays the groundwork for applying dynamical downfolding techniques to problems concerned with (quantum) interfaces.

Article Details

Volume / Issue Vol. 163, Issue 2
Published July 14, 2025
ISSN 0021-9606
Publisher American Institute of Physics

Journal Info

The Journal of Chemical Physics

American Institute of Physics

ISSN: 0021-9606 Physical Sciences

Authors (4)

A

Annabelle Canestraight

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California 1 , Santa Barbara, California 93106-9510,

Z

Zhen Huang

L

Lin Lin

V

Vojtech Vlcek

Department of Materials, University of California 4 , Santa Barbara, California 93106-9510,