Spectrum and states of the bcs hamiltonian in a finite domain. I. Spectrum

Abstract

The BCS Hamiltonian in a finite cube with periodic boundary condition is considered. The special subspace of pairs of particles with opposite momenta and spin is introduced. It is proved that, in this subspace, the spectrum of the BCS Hamiltonian is defined exactly for one pair, and for n pairs the spectrum is defined through the eigenvalues of one pair and a term that tends to zero as the volume of the cube tends to infinity. On the subspace of pairs, the BCS Hamiltonian can be represented as a sum of two operators. One of them describes the spectra of noninteracting pairs and the other one describes the interaction between pairs that tends to zero as the volume of the cube tends to infinity. It is proved that, on the subspace of pairs, as the volume of the cube tends to infinity, the BCS Hamiltonian tends to the approximating Hamiltonian, which is a quadratic form with respect to the operators of creation and annihilation.