Path integrals for the nuclear many-body problem

We present a general method for constructing path intergrals for the nuclear many-body problem. This method uses continuous and overcomplete sets of vectors in the Hilbert space. The state labels play the role of classical coordinates which are quantized as bosons. The equations of motion for the classical coordinates are obtained by calculating the functional integral in the saddle point approximation. In the particular case where the over-complete set considered is the set of all Slater determinants, the classical equations of motion are the time-dependent Hartree-Fock equations. The functional integral provides a way of requantizing these classical equations. This quantization involves boson degrees of freedom and is in some cases very similar to the method of boson expansion. It is shown that the functional integral formalism provides a unifying framework to describe various approaches to the nuclear many-body problem.

NUCLEAR STRUCTURE Functional integrals on continuous over-complete sets. Time-dependent Hartree and Hartree-Fock theories. Boson representations for fermion systems.