Eur. Phys. J. A (2014) 50: 95
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2014-14095-8

Review

Stochastic quantum dynamics beyond mean field

¹ Institut de Physique Nucléaire, IN2P3-CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, F-91406, Orsay Cedex, France
² Physics Department, Tennessee Technological University, 38505, Cookeville, TN, USA

^* e-mail: lacroix@ipno.in2p3.fr

Received: 10 February 2014
Revised: 1 April 2014
Accepted: 24 April 2014
Published online: 10 June 2014

Abstract

Mean-field approaches where a complex fermionic many-body problem is replaced by an ensemble of independent particles in a self-consistent mean field can describe many static and dynamical aspects. It generally provides a rather good approximation for the average properties of one-body degrees of freedom. However, the mean-field approximation generally fails to produce quantum fluctuations of collective motion. To overcome this difficulty, noise can be added to the mean-field theory leading to a stochastic description of the many-body problem. In the present work, we summarize recent progress in this field and discuss approaches where fluctuations have been added either to the initial time, like in the stochastic mean-field theory or continuously in time as in the stochastic time-dependent Hartree-Fock. In some cases, the initial problem can even be reformulated exactly by introducing Quantum Monte Carlo methods in real time. The possibility to describe superfluid systems is also invoked. Successes and shortcomings of the different beyond mean-field theories are discussed and illustrated.