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INTERACTING ELECTRONS
Theory and Computational Approaches
Recent progress in the theory and computation of electronic structure is bringing an

unprecedented level of capability for research. Many-body methods are becoming essential
tools vital for quantitative calculations and understanding materials phenomena in physics,
chemistry, materials science, and other fields. This book provides a unified exposition of
the most-used tools: many-body perturbation theory, dynamical mean-field theory, and
quantum Monte Carlo simulations.
Each topic is introduced with a less technical overview for a broad readership, followed
by in-depth descriptions and mathematical formulation. Practical guidelines, illustrations,
and exercises are chosen to enable readers to appreciate the complementary approaches,
their relationships, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method. This book is
designed for graduate students and researchers who want to use and understand these
advanced computational tools, get a broad overview, and acquire a basis for participating
in new developments.
R ICHARD M. M ARTIN is Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign and Consulting Professor at Stanford University. He has made extensive
contributions to the field of modern electronic structure methods and the theory of inter-
acting electron systems and he is the author of the companion book, Electronic Structure:
Basic Theory and Methods.
L UCIA R EINING is CNRS Senior Researcher at École Polytechnique Palaiseau and
founding member of the European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility. Her work covers
many-body perturbation theory and time-dependent density functional theory. She is a
recipient of the CNRS silver medal and fellow of the American Physical Society.
DAVID M. C EPERLEY is a Founders and Blue Waters Professor at the University of Illi-
nois at Urbana-Champaign where he has pioneered the quantum Monte Carlo method,
including the development of variational, diffusion, and path-integral Monte Carlo. He is
a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and recipient of the Rahman Prize for
Computational Physics of the APS and the Feenberg Medal for Many-Body Physics.
Interacting Electrons
Theory and Computational Approaches
Richard M. Martin
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Lucia Reining
École Polytechnique Palaiseau
David M. Ceperley
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521871501

c Cambridge University Press 2016
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2016
Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Martin, Richard M., 1942– author. | Reining, Lucia, author. | Ceperley, David, author.
Title: Interacting electrons : theory and computational approaches / Richard M. Martin
(University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Lucia Reining (Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau),
David M. Ceperley (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign).
Description: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, [2016] | ?2016
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041121 | ISBN 9780521871501 (hardback) |
ISBN 0521871506 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Electronic structure. | Electrons. | Many-body problem. |
Perturbation (Quantum dynamics) | Quantum theory. | Monte Carlo method.
Classification: LCC QC176.8.E4 M368 2016 | DDC 539.7/2112–dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041121
ISBN 978–0–521-87150-1 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
To our families
Contents
Preface page xvii

Acknowledgments xix
Notation xx
Part I Interacting electrons: beyond the independent-particle picture
1 The many-electron problem: introduction 1
Summary 1
1.1 The electronic structure problem 2
1.2 Why is this problem hard? 3
1.3 Why is the independent-electron picture so successful? 5
1.4 Development of theoretical approaches to the many-body problem 8
1.5 The many-body problem and computation 10
1.6 The scope of this book 13
Select further reading 14
2 Signatures of electron correlation 15
Summary 15
2.1 What is meant by correlation? 16
2.2 Ground-state and thermodynamic properties 17
2.3 Magnetism and local moments 20
2.4 Electron addition and removal: the bandgap problem and more 21
2.5 Satellites and sidebands 26
2.6 Particle–hole and collective excitations 29
2.7 The Kondo effect and heavy fermions 32
2.8 Mott insulators and metal–insulator transitions 33
2.9 Lower dimensions: stronger interaction effects 36
2.10 Wrap-up 39
3 Concepts and models for interacting electrons 40
Summary 40
3.1 The Wigner transition and the homogeneous electron system 40
3.2 The Mott transition and the Hubbard model 43
3.3 Magnetism and spin models 48
viii Contents
3.4 Normal metals and Fermi liquid theory 49

3.5 The Kondo effect and the Anderson impurity model 51
3.6 The Luttinger theorem and the Friedel sum rule 54
Exercises 56
Part II Foundations of theory for many-body systems
4 Mean fields and auxiliary systems 59

Summary 59
4.1 The Hartree and Hartree–Fock approximations 61
4.2 Weiss mean field and the Curie–Weiss approximation 64
4.3 Density functional theory and the Kohn–Sham auxiliary system 65
4.4 The Kohn–Sham electronic structure 70
4.5 Extensions of the Kohn–Sham approach 72
4.6 Time-dependent density and current density functional theory 76
4.7 Symmetry breaking in mean-field approximations and beyond 78
4.8 Wrap-up 80
Exercises 81
5 Correlation functions 84
Summary 84
5.1 Expectation values and correlation functions 85
5.2 Static one-electron properties 86
5.3 Static two-particle correlations: density correlations and the structure
factor 90
5.4 Dynamic correlation functions 93
5.5 Response functions 98
5.6 The one-particle Green’s function 105
5.7 Useful quantities derived from the one-particle Green’s function 111
5.8 Two-particle Green’s functions 116
Exercises 120
6 Many-body wavefunctions 122

Summary 122
6.1 Properties of the many-body wavefunction 123
6.2 Boundary conditions 124
6.3 The ground-state wavefunction of insulators 126
6.4 Correlation in two-electron systems 129
6.5 Trial function local energy, Feynman–Kac formula, and wavefunction
quality 131
6.6 The pair product or Slater–Jastrow wavefunction 134
Contents ix
6.7 Beyond Slater determinants 139

Exercises 141
7 Particles and quasi-particles 144

Summary 144
7.1 Dynamical equations and Green’s functions for coupled systems 145
7.2 The self-energy and the Dyson equation 148
7.3 Illustration: a single state coupled to a continuum 151
7.4 Interacting systems: the self-energy and spectral function 152
7.5 Quasi-particles 157
7.6 Quasi-particle equations 161
7.7 Separating different contributions to a Dyson equation 163
7.8 Wrap-up 165
Exercises 166
8 Functionals in many-particle physics 169

Summary 169
8.1 Density functional theory and the Hartree–Fock approximation 171
8.2 Functionals of the Green’s function G and self-energy 174
8.3 Functionals of the screened interaction W 179
8.4 Generating functionals 182
8.5 Conservation laws and conserving approximations 187
8.6 Wrap-up 190
Exercises 191
Part III Many-body Green’s function methods
9 Many-body perturbation theory: expansion in the interaction 193

Summary 193
9.1 The Coulomb interaction and perturbation theory 194
9.2 Connecting the interacting and non-interacting systems 199
9.3 Telling the story of particles: diagrams 202
9.4 Making the story easier: two theorems 206
9.5 Dyson equation for the one-particle Green’s function, and the
self-energy 212
9.6 Diagrammatic expansion at non-vanishing temperature 213
9.7 Self-consistent perturbation theory: from bare to dressed building
blocks 215
9.8 The Luttinger–Ward functional 217
9.9 Wrap-up 219
Exercises 220
x Contents
10 Many-body perturbation theory via functional derivatives 222

Summary 222
10.1 The equation of motion 223
10.2 The functional derivative approach 226
10.3 Dyson equations 228
10.4 Conservation laws 231
10.5 A starting point for approximations 234
10.6 Wrap-up 242
Exercises 243
11 The RPA and the GW approximation for the self-energy 245

Summary 245
11.1 Hedin’s equations 246
11.2 Neglecting vertex corrections in the polarizability: the RPA 251
11.3 Neglecting vertex corrections in the self-energy: the GW approximation 253
11.4 Link between the GWA and static mean-field approaches 260
11.5 Ground-state properties from the GWA 262
11.6 The GWA in the homogeneous electron gas 265
11.7 The GWA in small model systems 272
11.8 Wrap-up 277
Exercises 278
12 GWA calculations in practice 280

Summary 280
12.1 The task: a summary 281
12.2 Frequently used approximations 283
12.3 Core and valence 289
12.4 Different levels of self-consistency 292
12.5 Frequency integrations 298
12.6 GW calculations in a basis 302
12.7 Scaling and convergence 306
12.8 Wrap-up 308
Exercises 310
13 GWA calculations: illustrative results 311

Summary 311
13.1 From the HEG to a real semiconductor: silicon as a prototype system 312
13.2 Materials properties in the GWA: an overview 319
13.3 Energy levels in finite and low-dimensional systems 326
13.4 Transition metals and their oxides 329
13.5 GW results for the ground state 337
Contents xi
13.6 A comment on temperature 341

13.7 Wrap-up 343
Exercises 344
14 RPA and beyond: the Bethe–Salpeter equation 345

Summary 345
14.1 The two-particle correlation function and measurable quantities 346
14.2 The two-particle correlation function: basic relations 348
14.3 The RPA: what can it yield? 350
14.4 Beyond the RPA: spin and frequency structure of the BSE 353
14.5 The Bethe–Salpeter equation in the GW approximation 355
14.6 A two-body Schrödinger equation 357
14.7 Importance and analysis of electron–hole interaction effects 361
14.8 Bethe–Salpeter calculations in practice 368
14.9 Applications 372
14.10 Extensions 379
14.11 Linear response using Green’s functions or density functionals 382
14.12 Wrap-up 385
Exercises 387
15 Beyond the GW approximation 389

Summary 389
15.1 The need to go beyond GW: analysis and observations 391
15.2 Iterating Hedin’s equations 393
15.3 Effects of vertex corrections 394
15.4 The T-matrix and related approximations 399
15.5 Beyond the T-matrix approximation: combining channels 402
15.6 T-matrix and related approaches in practice 406
15.7 Cumulants in electron spectroscopy 410
15.8 Use of exact constraints 415
15.9 Retrospective and outlook 417
Exercises 419
16 Dynamical mean-field theory 421

Summary 421
16.1 Auxiliary systems and embedding in Green’s function methods 423
16.2 Overview of DMFT 425
16.3 Expansion around an atomic limit: low energy scales and strong
temperature dependence 429
16.4 Background for mean-field theories and auxiliary systems 431
16.5 Dynamical mean-field equations 435
xii Contents
16.6 Self-energy functional and variational equations 441

16.7 Static properties and density matrix embedding 442
16.8 Single-site DMFA in a two-site model 444
16.9 The Mott transition in infinite dimensions 445
16.10 Hybridized bands and consequences for the Mott transition 450
16.11 Interacting bands and spin transitions 451
16.12 Wrap-up 453
Exercises 454
17 Beyond the single-site approximation in DMFT 457

Summary 457
17.1 Supercells and clusters 458
17.2 Cellular DMFA 460
17.3 Dynamic cluster approximation 463
17.4 Variational cluster and nested cluster approximations 466
17.5 Extended DMFT and auxiliary bosons 467
17.6 Results for Hubbard models in one, two, and three dimensions 470
17.7 Wrap-up 475
Exercises 477
18 Solvers for embedded systems 479

Summary 479
18.1 The problem(s) to be solved 480
18.2 Exact diagonalization and related methods 481
18.3 Path-integral formulation in terms of the action 483
18.4 Auxiliary-field methods and the Hirsch–Fye algorithm 485
18.5 CTQMC: expansion in the interaction 487
18.6 CTQMC: expansion in the hybridization 491
18.7 Dynamical interactions in CTQMC 496
18.8 Other methods 498
18.9 Wrap-up 499
Exercises 500
19 Characteristic hamiltonians for solids with d and f states 502

Summary 502
19.1 Transition elements: atomic-like behavior and local moments 503
19.2 Hamiltonian in a localized basis: crystal fields, bands, Mott–Hubbard
vs. charge transfer 507
19.3 Effective interaction hamiltonian 512
19.4 Identification of localized orbitals 513
Contents xiii
19.5 Combining DMFT and DFT 515

19.6 Static mean-field approximations: DFT+U, etc. 522
19.7 Wrap-up 525
Exercises 526
20 Examples of calculations for solids with d and f states 527

Summary 527
20.1 Kondo effect in realistic multi-orbital problems 528
20.2 Lanthanides – magnetism, volume collapse, heavy fermions, mixed
valence, etc. 529
20.3 Actinides – transition from band to localized 536
20.4 Transition metals – local moments and ferromagnetism: Fe and Ni 537
20.5 Transition metal oxides: overview 540
20.6 Vanadium compounds and metal–insulator transitions 541
20.7 NiO – charge-transfer insulator, antiferromagnetism, and doping 543
20.8 MnO – metal–insulator and spin transitions 547
20.9 Wrap-up 549
Exercises 551
21 Combining Green’s functions approaches: an outlook 553

Summary 553
21.1 Taking advantage of different Green’s function methods 555
21.2 Partitioning the system 557
21.3 Combining different levels of diagrammatic approaches 559
21.4 Combining Green’s function methods: GW and DMFT 561
21.5 Dynamical interactions and constrained RPA 568
21.6 Consequences of dynamical interactions 570
21.7 Diagrammatic extensions: dynamical vertex approximation and dual
fermions 571
21.8 Wrap-up 574
Exercises 575
Part IV Stochastic methods
22 Introduction to stochastic methods 577

Summary 577
22.1 Simulations 578
22.2 Random walks and Markov chains 579
22.3 The Metropolis Monte Carlo method 581
22.4 Computing error bars 583
xiv Contents
22.5 The “heat bath” algorithm 586

22.6 Remarks 587
Exercises 588
23 Variational Monte Carlo 590
Summary 590
23.1 Details of the variational Monte Carlo method 592
23.2 Optimizing trial wavefunctions 596
23.3 The momentum distribution and single-particle density matrix 598
23.4 Non-local pseudopotentials 599
23.5 Finite-size effects 601
23.6 VMC for lattice models 603
23.7 Excitations and orthogonality 603
23.8 Strengths and weaknesses of VMC 606
Exercises 608
24 Projector quantum Monte Carlo 609
Summary 609
24.1 Types and properties of projectors 610
24.2 The diffusion Monte Carlo method 612
24.3 Exact fermion methods: the sign or phase problem 621
24.4 The fixed-node and fixed-phase methods 623
24.5 Mixed estimators, exact estimators, and the overlap 628
24.6 Non-local pseudopotentials in PMC 630
24.7 Projector auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo methods 632
24.8 Applications of projector MC 636
24.9 The pluses and minuses of projector MC 639
Exercises 642
25 Path-integral Monte Carlo 644
Summary 644
25.1 The path-integral representation 645
25.2 Exchange of localized electrons 650
25.3 Quantum statistics and PIMC 652
25.4 Ground-state path integrals (GSPI) 659
25.5 Finite-temperature QMC for the Hubbard model 662
25.6 Estimating real-time correlation functions 665
25.7 Correlation-function QMC for excitations 669
Exercises 673
26 Concluding remarks 674
Contents xv
Part V Appendices
Appendix A Second quantization 677
Summary 677
A.1 First quantization 677
A.2 Second quantization 678
Appendix B Pictures 683
Summary 683
B.1 Schrödinger picture 684
B.2 Heisenberg picture 684
B.3 Interaction picture 686
Exercises 689
Appendix C Green’s functions: general properties 690
Summary 690
C.1 Green’s functions for differential equations 690
C.2 Fourier transforms and spectral representations 691
C.3 Frequency integrals 693
C.4 From many-body to few-body Green’s functions 695
C.5 The thermodynamic limit 696
Exercises 697
Appendix D Matsubara formulation for Green’s functions for T = 0 699
Summary 699
D.1 Green’s functions at T = 0: Matsubara frequencies 699
D.2 Analytic properties in the complex-frequency plane 702
D.3 Illustration of the structure of G0 (iωn ) and G0 (τ ) 705
D.4 The grand potential 707
D.5 Transformation to real frequencies 709
Exercises 709
Appendix E Time ordering, contours, and non-equilibrium 710
Summary 710
E.1 The task 710
E.2 The contour interpretation 710
E.3 Contours for all purposes 712
Appendix F Hedin’s equations in a basis 715
Summary 715
F.1 Generalization of Hedin’s equations 715
xvi Contents
F.2 Hedin’s equations in a basis 717

Appendix G Unique solutions in Green’s function theory 719
Summary 719
G.1 Which G0 ? Boundary conditions in time 719
G.2 Which G? Self-consistent Dyson equations 720
G.3 Convergence of perturbation expansions and consequences 721
Exercises 722
Appendix H Properties of functionals 724
Summary 724
H.1 Functionals and functional equations 724
H.2 Legendre transformations and invertibility 725
H.3 Examples of functionals for the total energy in Kohn–Sham DFT
calculations 726
H.4 Free-energy functionals for spin systems and proof of invertibility 727
H.5 Extension to quantum spins and density functional theory 729
Exercises 730
Appendix I Auxiliary systems and constrained search 731
Summary 731
I.1 Auxiliary system to reproduce selected quantities 731
I.2 Constrained search with an interacting auxiliary system 732
Exercises 734
Appendix J Derivation of the Luttinger theorem 735
Summary 735
Exercises 738
Appendix K Gutzwiller and Hubbard approaches 739
Summary 739
K.1 Gutzwiller approach in terms of the wavefunction 740
K.2 Hubbard approach in terms of the Green’s function 742
K.3 Two scenarios for the Mott transition 747
Exercises 748
References 750
Index 806
Preface
Recent progress in the theory and computation of electronic structure is bringing an

unprecedented level of capability for research. It is now possible to make quantitative
calculations and provide novel understanding of natural and man-made materials and
phenomena vital to physics, chemistry, materials science, as well as many other fields.
Electronic structure is indeed an active, growing field with enormous impact, as illustrated
by the more than 10,000 papers per year.
Much of our understanding is based on mean-field models of independent electrons,
such as Hartree–Fock and other approximations, or density functional theory. The lat-
ter is designed to treat ground-state properties of the interacting-electron system, but it
is often also used to describe excited states in an independent-electron interpretation.
Such approaches can only go so far; many of the most interesting properties of materials
are a result of interaction between electrons that cannot be explained by independent-
electron descriptions. Calculations for interacting electrons are much more challenging
than those of independent electrons. However, thanks to developments in theory and meth-
ods based on fundamental equations, and thanks to improved computational hardware,
many-body methods are increasingly essential tools for a broad range of applications. With
the present book, we aim to explain the many-body concepts and computational methods
that are needed for the reader to enter the field, understand the methods, and gain a broad
perspective that will enable him or her to participate in new developments.
What sets this book apart from others in the field? Which criteria determine the top-
ics included? We want the description to be broad and general, in order to reflect the
richness of the field, the generality of the underlying theories, and the wide range of poten-
tial applications. The aim is to describe matter all the way from isolated molecules to
extended systems. The methods must be capable of computing a wide range of properties
of diverse materials, and have promise for exciting future applications. Finally, practical
computational methods are an important focus for this book.
Choices have to be made since the number of different approaches, their variations,
and applications is immense, and the book is meant to be more than an overview. We
therefore cannot focus on such important areas as quantum chemistry methods, e.g. cou-
pled cluster theory and configuration interaction methods, nor do we cover all of the
developments in lattice models, or explore the vast field of superconductivity. Rather,
we concentrate on three methods: many-body perturbation theory, dynamical mean-field
xviii Preface
theory, and stochastic quantum Monte Carlo methods. Our goals are to present each of
these widely used methods with its strengths and weaknesses, to bring out their relation-
ships, and to illuminate paths for combining these and other methods in order to create
more powerful approaches. We believe that it is a unique feature of this book to have all
three methods addressed in a coherent way: the conceptual structure, the actual methods,
and selected applications.
The book is written so that a reader interested in many-body theory and methods
should not have to go through the details of density functional theory and methods for
independent-particle calculations. Summaries of pertinent material are given in this book,
and extensive exposition can be found in the companion book by one of us (R. M. Martin,
Electronic Structure: Basic theory and methods, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
2004, reprinted 2005 and 2008). The two books are complementary and can be read
independently.
The organization of the book follows naturally: Part I (Chapters 1–4) contains back-
ground material including history, experimental motivations, and some classic concepts
and models referred to throughout the book. Part II (Chapters 5–8) discusses theoretical
foundations useful in all many-body treatments: mean-field theories, correlation functions
and Green’s functions, many-body wavefunctions, the concepts of quasi-particles, and
functionals used in Green’s function methods. Part III contains two distinct but related
ways to use Green’s functions, namely many-body perturbation theory including GW and
the Bethe–Salpeter equation (Chapters 9–15), and dynamical mean-field theory (Chap-
ters 16–21). Finally, Part IV (Chapters 22–26) discusses stochastic (quantum Monte Carlo)
methods. The descriptions of these three approaches are written so that each can be read
independently. Altogether, we try to clarify concepts, differences, and points of contact
between the various methods, and possibilities for combining the methods as a basis for
future progress in understanding and predicting properties of interacting electron systems.
Acknowledgments
This book has benefitted from the support of many colleagues and friends, and from the
working environment provided by institutions and initiatives. The book reflects thoughts,
discussions, and struggles for understanding that we have shared with our students and
teachers, post docs, and peers. It is not possible to name everyone; people who have
contributed directly are: Alexei Abrikosov, James W. Allen, Ole Krough Andersen, Ferdi
Aryasetiawan, Friedhelm Bechstedt, Arjan Berger, Silke Biermann, Nils Blümmer, Fabien
Bruneval, Michele Casula, Bryan Clark, Rodolfo Del Sole, Thomas P. Devereaux, Stefano
Di Sabatino, Jacques Friedel, Christoph Friedrich, Matteo Gatti, Ted Geballe, Antoine
Georges, Rex Godby, Emmanuel Gull, Matteo Guzzo, Walter Harrison, Kristjan Haule,
Karsten Held, Markus Holzmann, Mark Jarrell, Borje Johansson, Erik Koch, Gabriel
Kotliar, Wei Ku, Jan Kunes̆, Giovanna Lani, Alexander I. Lichtenstein, Andrew McMa-
han, Andrea Marini, Andrew Millis, Elisa Molinari, Giovanni Onida, Eva Pavarini, Warren
E. Pickett, John Rehr, Claudia Rödl, Pina Romaniello, Mariana Rossi, Alice Ruini, Sashi
Satpathy, Sergej Savrasov, Richard Scalettar, Fausto Sirotti, Francesco Sottile, Adrian Stan,
Zhi-Xun Shen, Mark van Schilfgaarde, Liu Hao Tjeng, Dieter Vollhardt, Jess Wellendorff,
Philipp Werner, Jonas Weinen, Weitao Yang, Amy Young, Haijun Zhang, Shiwei Zhang,
Jianqiang Sky Zhou.
Of great benefit was the continuous and stimulating scientific exchange in the framework
of a series of European collaborative projects, culminating in the Nanoquanta network of
excellence and the European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF).
Our institutions have supported our work through this long project: the Department of
Physics, the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, and the Materials Computation Center, supported by the National
Science Foundation; the Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés in Palaiseau and its responsible
institutions – the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the École Poly-
technique, and the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA);
the Department of Applied Physics, Standford University.
Additional support was provided by the Aspen Center of Physics, Agence Nationale pour
la Recherche Scientifique (ANR) in France, ICMAB – Universitat Autonoma Barcelona,
SIESTA Foundation.
Last not least, we are deeply thankful to our families, friends, and colleagues for their
great patience and their continuous encouragements.
Notation
Abbreviations
w.r.t. with respect to
+c.c. add complex conjugate of preceding quantity
Re, Im real and imaginary parts
BZ first Brillouin zone
1D one dimension or one-dimensional (similar for 2D and 3D)
Acronyms most used

BSE Bethe–Salpeter equation
DFT density functional theory
DMFA various approximations in DMFT
DMFT dynamical mean-field theory
EXX exact exchange in DFT
GGA generalized gradient approximation
GWA GW approximation
HF Hartree–Fock
HFA Hartree–Fock approximation
KS Kohn–Sham
LDA local density approximation
MBPT many-body perturbation theory
QMC quantum Monte Carlo
RHF restricted Hartree–Fock
RPA random phase approximation
TDDFT time-dependent density functional theory
UHF unrestricted Hartree–Fock
General physical quantities

E energy
μ chemical potential
EF Fermi energy (chemical potential at T = 0)
T temperature (also computer time)
β inverse temperature, 1/kB T
Z partition function; same notation for canonical and grand
canonical (also renormalization factor for spectral weight)
S or A action
Notation xxi
S entropy
F Helmholz free energy
G Gibbs free energy (when identified), otherwise G denotes a
Green’s function
grand potential
Time and frequency

t time
τ imaginary time
τ imaginary time step
ω frequency (real or complex as specified or as clear from context)
z frequency defined in complex plane
ωn Matsubara frequencies
zn position of ωn in complex plane, zn = μ + iωn
Coordinates and operators

r electron position
σ electron spin
x combined space/spin coordinates (r, σ )
1 combined space/spin/time coordinates (x1 , t1 )
1̄ variable to be integrated
R N-electron coordinates R = {r1 . . . rN }
N number of electrons
RI position of ion I
ZI charge of ion I
Ô general operator in Schrödinger picture

Ô expectation value
ÔH (t) operator in Heisenberg picture, for static Ĥ, ÔH = eiĤt Ôe−iĤt
c† and c creation and annihilation operators for fermions
ψ̂ † , ψ̂ and ψ̂ † (t), ψ̂(t) field operators for fermions; time argument denotes Heisenberg
picture, for static Ĥ, ψ̂ † (t) = eiĤt ψ̂ † e−iĤt , ψ̂(t) = eiĤt ψ̂e−iĤt
b† and b creation and annihilation operators for bosons
n̂ particle number operator
Ŝ, m atomic moments or spin, m = Ŝ
T time-ordering operator
Tτ time ordering in imaginary time τ
Â antisymmetrization operator
Tr trace
∞
Tr TrF = − 2πi limη→0+ Tr −∞ dω eiηω F(ω) for T = 0

TrF = Tr β −1 n F(iωn ) for T = 0
for a general function F
xxii Notation
Hamiltonian and eigenstates

Ĥ many-body hamiltonian
V̂ee electron–electron interaction
vc (|ri − rj |) Coulomb interaction
Eα energy of many-body state labeled α
E0 ground-state energy
α (R) or α (R) many-body wavefunction (R denotes ri , i = 1); often subscript
α is omitted
V(R) many-body potential energy function
T (R) or (R) trial wavefunction

U(R) N-electron Jastrow factor
u(rij ) or u(ri , rj ) Jastrow factor for a pair of electrons
(R) N-electron phase of the trial wavefunction
EL (R| ) local energy of a trial function
EV variational energy of a trial function
σ2 variance of the local energy of a trial function
O overlap of trial function with exact wavefunction
Ĥ0 independent-particle hamiltonian

χm (r) single-particle basis function, m = 1, . . . , Nbasis
hm,m or h0m,m matrix element of independent-particle hamiltonian
v(r) single-particle potential
vH (r) Hartree potential
ψi (r) single-particle wavefunction, i = 1, . . . , Nstates , also orbitals in
a Slater determinant
εi independent-particle eigenvalue, i = 1, . . . , Nstates
f (ε) Fermi function
Parameters of model hamiltonians

t, t hopping matrix elements
U on-site interaction in Hubbard-type models
J intra-atomic exchange interaction, also interatomic Heisenberg
exchange constant
Correlation functions, Green’s functions, response functions, self-energy, etc.

CAB (t) correlation function for quantities A and B
n(r) density (also spin-resolved n(r, σ ))
n0 (r) ground-state density (also n0 (r, σ ))
ρ(k) momentum distribution (also ρ(k, σ ))
ρ(r, r ) one-electron density matrix (also ρ(r, σ ; r , σ ))
Notation xxiii
n(r, r ) pair distribution function (also n(r, σ ; r , σ ))

g(r, r ) normalized pair distribution (also g(r, σ ; r , σ ))

S(q, q ), S(k) structure factor (also S(q, σ ; q , σ ) or S σ σ )
kk
S(ω) dynamic structure factor with similar notation for momenta and
spin
G one-body Green’s function expressed as a function of

arguments, e.g., r, r , σ , t, τ , ω, z or as a matrix in a basis, Gm,m
G0 or G0 independent-particle Green’s function
A spectral function
self-energy (irreducible)
vertex function
Z renormalization factor of spectral weight (also partition
function)
G Green’s function for embedded site or cell

G0 embedding Green’s function for embedded site or cell
hybridization function for impurity, embedded site or cell
G2 two-particle Green’s function

L two-particle correlation function, L = −G2 + GG
χ general linear response function, susceptibility
χ0 general linear response function for independent particles
dielectric function
W screened interaction
P polarizability (irreducible)
Functionals
F[f ] general functional of the function f
D domain of a functional
Exc [n] exchange–correlation energy in Kohn–Sham theory
[G] interaction functional of Green’s function G
F[] Legendre transform of [G]
[G, W] interaction functional of G and screened interaction W
J (1, 1 ) external probe field – non-local in space and time
[J ] grand-potential functional of J
[Q] effective action functional, Legendre transform of [J ]
Notation for crystals

volume of cell (primitive cell or supercell)
T lattice translations
xxiv Notation
G reciprocal lattice vectors

k or q wavevector in first Brillouin zone
k for electrons; q for interactions, susceptibilities
ψk (r) = eik·r uk (r) Bloch function in crystal, with uk (r) periodic
εk eigenvalues that define bands as a function of k
Gk , k Green’s function and self-energy as functions of k
χq or χ (q) general susceptibility as a function of q
Gii or G00 on-site Green’s function at site i
Li primitive vector of supercell i = {1, 2, 3}

K total wavevector for many-body wavefunction
Ĥ(K) K-dependent hamiltonian with periodic eigenvectors
uK (R), R = {r1 . . . rN }
cf crystal field splitting

eg and t2g crystal field states in cubic symmetry
Notation for stochastic methods

S, s, R state vector, i.e., variables describing the instantaneous state of
a random walk
R(n) , s(n) the nth many-body configuration in a random walk
(n) or projected trial wavefunction after n iterations or imaginary
τ
time τ
(s) many-body distribution function to be sampled
Õ average of Õ over distribution
P(s → s ), Ps s transition probability random walk
T(s → s ) trial transition probability
A(s → s ) acceptance probability
Õ estimator for property O
Ō estimated mean value of property O
νO variance of property O
σO standard error of Ō
κO autocorrelation time for property O in a random walk
τ time step in VMC, DMC, or PIMC
P electron permutation
G(R, R ), Ĝ many-body projector
G(R ← R ) importance-sampled projector
G (R) guiding function for importance sampling
ρ(R, R ; β) many-body density matrix
PA RT I
INTERACTING ELECTRONS: BEYOND THE
INDEPENDENT-PARTICLE PICTURE
1
The many-electron problem: introduction
The calculation of a wavefunction took about two afternoons, and five wavefunctions were
calculated in the whole . . . .
Wigner and Seitz, 1933
Summary
In order to explain many important properties of materials and phenomena, it is
necessary to go beyond independent-particle approximations and directly account for
many-body effects that result from electronic interaction. The many-body problem is
a major scientific challenge, but there has been great progress resulting from theoret-
ical developments and advances in computation. This chapter is a short introduction
to the interacting-electron problem, with some of the history that has led up to the
concepts and methods described in this book.
The many-body interacting-electron problem ranks among the most fascinating and fruitful
areas of research in physics and chemistry. It has a rich history, starting from the early days
of quantum mechanics and continuing with new intellectual challenges and opportunities.
The vitality of electronic structure theory arises in large part from the close connection
with experiment and applications. It is spurred on by new discoveries and advances in
techniques that probe the behavior of electrons in depth. In turn, theoretical concepts and
calculations can now make predictions that suggest new experiments, as well as provide
quantitative information that is difficult or not yet possible to measure experimentally.
This book is concerned with the effects of interactions between electrons beyond
independent-particle approximations. Some phenomena cannot be explained by any
independent-electron method, such as broadening and lifetime of excited states and two-
particle bound states (excitons) that are crucial for optical properties of materials. There are
many other examples, such as the van der Waals interaction between neutral molecules that
arises from the dipole–induced dipole interaction. This force, which is entirely due to corre-
lation between electrons, is an essential mechanism determining the functions of biological
2 The many-electron problem: introduction
systems. Other properties, such as thermodynamically stable magnetic phases, would not
exist if there were no interactions between electrons; even though mean-field approxima-
tions can describe average effects, they do not account for fluctuations around the average.
Ground-state properties, such as the equilibrium structures of molecules and solids, can
be described by density functional theory (DFT) and the Kohn–Sham independent-particle
equations. However, present approximations are often not sufficient, and for many proper-
ties the equations, when used in a straightforward way, do not give a proper description,
even in principle. A satisfactory theory ultimately requires us to confront the problem of
interacting, correlated electrons.
It is challenging to develop robust, quantitative theoretical methods for interacting,
correlated electrons, but there has been great progress. The exponential growth of com-
putational capability and the development of algorithms have turned theoretical ideas into
practical methods. The field has gone a long way, from calculations for single atoms or
the homogeneous electron gas, to applications that impact not only the traditional fields of
solid-state physics, materials science and chemistry, but also diverse areas ranging from
engineering to biology, from archeology to astrophysics. Progress in all these disciplines
can be greatly enhanced by quantitative calculations based on the fundamental laws of
quantum mechanics. In this chapter we will see how the bridge is made between theoretical
foundations and computational realizations.
1.1 The electronic structure problem

What we want to describe is the behavior of atoms, molecules, and condensed matter,
which is governed by the quantum statistical mechanics for electrons and nuclei interacting
via the Coulomb potential. The essential ingredients1 are contained in the hamiltonian
h- 2 2 ZI e2 1 e2
Ĥ = − ∇i − +
2me |ri − RI | 2 |ri − rj |
i i,I i=j
h- 2 1 ZI ZJ e2
− ∇I2 + , (1.1)
2MI 2 |RI − RJ |
I I=J
where electrons are denoted by lowercase subscripts and coordinates ri and nuclei are
denoted by uppercase subscripts, coordinates RI , charge ZI e, and mass MI . Throughout
much of the book, we will use atomic units defined such that h- = me = e = 4π/0 = 1.
1 The hamiltonian in Eq. (1.1) displays the dominant terms for the problems that are addressed throughout this
book. Other terms are included when needed: externally applied electric and magnetic fields can be treated
as an added scalar potential, a vector potential in the kinetic energy operator as (i∇j + ec A)2 , and Zeeman
terms for the spin in a magnetic field. Time-dependent electromagnetic fields are included later in perturbation
theory. Spin–orbit coupling and other relativistic effects are important in heavy atoms; however, they are one-
particle terms that originate deep in the core and can be included in an ion core potential (or pseudopotential)
as explained in [1, Chs. 10 and 11]. Corrections to the Coulomb potential due to quantum electrodynamics are
small on the scale of interest for the chosen applications and are neglected.
1.2 Why is this problem hard? 3
Thus the unit of length is a Bohr ≈ 0.0529 nm and energy is a Hartree = 2 Rydberg ≈
27.211 eV (or the equivalent in temperature of 315 775 K).
In Eq. (1.1) there is only one term that can be regarded as small: the nuclear kinetic
energy, proportional to the inverse mass of the nuclei 1/MI . For the most part we ignore
this term to concentrate on the electronic problem with fixed nuclei, using the Born–
Oppenheimer (adiabatic) approximation [2]. Once we have neglected the kinetic energy
of the nuclei and fixed their positions,2 the final term, the interaction of nuclei with each
other, is a constant that can be added to the zero of energy. Hence, the hamiltonian essential
for the theory of interacting electrons consists of the first three terms, the kinetic energy
of the electrons, the electron–nucleus interaction, and the electron–electron interaction,3
which we can write as
Ĥ = T̂ e + V̂en + V̂ee . (1.2)
This equation encapsulates the electronic structure problem: the first and last terms are
universal for all problems, and the information specific to any system is contained in the
middle term, a potential that acts equally on all electrons. There is a vast collection of
approximations and techniques to deal with this hamiltonian because there are so many
phenomena and materials, and because the two-body electron–electron interaction term
V̂ee makes the problem so difficult. However, in recent years it has become possible to
compute many properties with methods derived directly from Eqs. (1.1) and (1.2). These
methods and the resulting properties are the topic of this book.
1.2 Why is this problem hard?

Let us first address the question of why the straightforward solution of the many-body
Schrödinger equation is so difficult. The underlying reason is the dimensionality of the
problem, “the curse of dimensionality.” A many-body wavefunction does not factorize
because of the electron–electron interaction. In three dimensions and for N electrons it
is a complex-valued function of 3N variables. Suppose we try to write the complete
many-electron wavefunction for N electrons in a basis. With this aim, we introduce a
single-particle basis set; there must be many basis functions to describe the wavefunction
accurately. Let the total number of single-particle basis functions be M, with M/N > 1.
Since electrons are indistinguishable fermions, the total basis for the many-body wavefunc-
tion consists of all Slater determinants of matrices with size N × N that can be constructed
from the single-particle basis set. The number of these determinants is
2 Quantum effects in the nuclear motion are important in some cases, e.g., hydrogen, helium, and other light
nuclei. Those quantum effects can be treated directly, for example, by using path integral methods as described
in Ch. 25 or approximately, for example, by assuming harmonic phonons. For heavier elements, the dynamics
of the nuclei can be handled with the classical molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo methods.
3 For bulk systems, there is a difficulty in dividing up the various terms that involve the Coulomb interaction
because each term is individually infinite. This can be handled by adding a uniformly charged background to
each such term, so each one is charge neutral.
4 The many-electron problem: introduction

M M!
= ≈ eCN , (1.3)
N N!(M − N)!
where C > 0. This is typically a huge number; for example, consider two carbon atoms,
with their N = 12 electrons. Suppose we represent the orbitals with only 36 basis functions.
This small representation yields more than 109 determinants (see Ex. 6.1).
The wavefunction for each eigenstate is a linear combination of these determinants.
Though there are often other symmetries, such as inversion or lattice translation, they do
not help enough to reduce the size of this linear combination to a reasonable amount.
It follows that to store a complete wavefunction and to manipulate it becomes exponen-
tially difficult as the number of electrons becomes large. The straightforward application
of methods such as the configuration interaction method [3], used in quantum chemistry to
compute properties of small molecules by exact diagonalization of the hamiltonian matrix,
is therefore limited to small numbers of electrons.
The difficulty in computing and storing one wavefunction (typically the ground state)
is only the tip of the iceberg. For systems at a non-zero temperature, all states that are
thermally occupied need to be computed and one often wants the response to external per-
turbations including spectra, thermodynamic functions, and more. To solve these problems
requires computation not only of the ground state, but also of many excited states. The
number of states required will scale exponentially with the system size. Finally, if we want
to do a molecular dynamics simulation, the calculations must be made many millions of
times with the forces on all of the atoms calculated at each step.
The path to deal with these issues is to realize that it is not essential to tabulate the com-
plete many-body wavefunction. What is usually needed are single numbers, such as the
energy or its derivatives, one-particle properties such as the electron density, and spec-
tra derived from one- or two-particle, or higher-order, correlation functions. All these
are expectation values. In Ch. 5 we introduce some of their most important properties.
Much of the rest of this book is then devoted to alternative ways to approach the problem:
methods to compute measurable properties without precise knowledge of the many-body
wavefunctions.
One way this can be done is in terms of Green’s functions, introduced in Ch. 5, which
represent directly the experimentally measurable spectra. These are developed in Part III,
along with examples of applications. Another approach is through techniques that directly
simulate the many-electron system. Instead of trying to represent explicitly the complete
many-body wavefunction, it is sampled instead. These methods, called quantum Monte
Carlo (QMC) methods, are discussed in Part IV.
There is no universal approach to find feasible, well-founded methods to deal with the
many-body problem. There are many different materials, many phenomena, and many dif-
ferent criteria to obtain the accuracy needed for a useful result. For some problems, such
as the relative stability of dissimilar structures that may be separated by very small differ-
ences in energy, we might require the accuracy in the energy difference to be much less
than the ambient temperature, 300 K ≈ 0.026 eV ≈ 9.5 × 10−4 a.u., which is often called
“chemical accuracy.” In other cases, one may find it satisfactory to calculate a bandgap to
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predecessors can have nothing to say to this question, however they
may have anticipated us on others; future ages, in all probability, will
not trouble their heads about it; we are the panel. How hard, then,
not to avail ourselves of our immediate privilege to give sentence of
life or death—to seem in ignorance of what every one else is full of—
to be behind-hand with the polite, the knowing, and fashionable part
of mankind—to be at a loss and dumb-founded, when all around us
are in their glory, and figuring away, on no other ground than that of
having read a work that we have not! Books that are to be written
hereafter cannot be criticised by us; those that were written formerly
have been criticised long ago: but a new book is the property, the
prey of ephemeral criticism, which it darts triumphantly upon; there
is a raw thin air of ignorance and uncertainty about it, not filled up
by any recorded opinion; and curiosity, impertinence, and vanity
rush eagerly into the vacuum. A new book is the fair field for
petulance and coxcombry to gather laurels in—the butt set up for
roving opinion to aim at. Can we wonder, then, that the circulating
libraries are besieged by literary dowagers and their granddaughters,
when a new novel is announced? That Mail-Coach copies of the
Edinburgh Review are or were coveted? That the Manuscript of the
Waverley romances is sent abroad in time for the French, German, or
even Italian translation to appear on the same day as the original
work, so that the longing Continental public may not be kept waiting
an instant longer than their fellow-readers in the English metropolis,
which would be as tantalising and insupportable as a little girl being
kept without her new frock, when her sister’s is just come home and
is the talk and admiration of every one in the house? To be sure,
there is something in the taste of the times; a modern work is
expressly adapted to modern readers. It appeals to our direct
experience, and to well-known subjects; it is part and parcel of the
world around us, and is drawn from the same sources as our daily
thoughts. There is, therefore, so far, a natural or habitual sympathy
between us and the literature of the day, though this is a different
consideration from the mere circumstance of novelty. An author now
alive has a right to calculate upon the living public: he cannot count
upon the dead, nor look forward with much confidence to those that
are unborn. Neither, however, is it true that we are eager to read all
new books alike: we turn from them with a certain feeling of distaste
and distrust, unless they are recommended to us by some peculiar
feature or obvious distinction. Only young ladies from the boarding-
school, or milliners’ girls, read all the new novels that come out. It
must be spoken of or against; the writer’s name must be well known
or a great secret; it must be a topic of discourse and a mark for
criticism—that is, it must be likely to bring us into notice in some
way—or we take no notice of it. There is a mutual and tacit
understanding on this head. We can no more read all the new books
that appear, than we can read all the old ones that have disappeared
from time to time. A question may be started here, and pursued as
far as needful, whether, if an old and worm-eaten Manuscript were
discovered at the present moment, it would be sought after with the
same avidity as a new and hot-pressed poem, or other popular work?
Not generally, certainly, though by a few with perhaps greater zeal.
For it would not affect present interests, or amuse present fancies, or
touch on present manners, or fall in with the public egotism in any
way: it would be the work either of some obscure author—in which
case it would want the principle of excitement; or of some illustrious
name, whose style and manner would be already familiar to those
most versed in the subject, and his fame established—so that, as a
matter of comment and controversy, it would only go to account on
the old score: there would be no room for learned feuds and heart-
burnings. Was there not a Manuscript of Cicero’s talked of as having
been discovered about a year ago? But we have heard no more of it.
There have been several other cases, more or less in point, in our
time or near it. A Noble Lord (which may serve to shew at least the
interest taken in books not for being new) some time ago gave
2000l. for a copy of the first edition of the Decameron: but did he
read it? It has been a fashion also of late for noble and wealthy
persons to go to a considerable expense in ordering reprints of the
old Chronicles and black-letter works. Does not this rather prove that
the books did not circulate very rapidly or extensively, or such
extraordinary patronage and liberality would not have been
necessary? Mr. Thomas Taylor, at the instance, I believe, of the old
Duke of Norfolk, printed fifty copies in quarto of a translation of the
works of Plato and Aristotle. He did not choose that a larger
impression should be struck off, lest these authors should get into
the hands of the vulgar. There was no danger of a run in that way. I
tried to read some of the Dialogues in the translation of Plato, but, I
confess, could make nothing of it: ‘the logic was so different from
ours!’[34] A startling experiment was made on this sort of
retrospective curiosity, in the case of Ireland’s celebrated Shakspeare
forgery. The public there certainly manifested no backwardness nor
lukewarmness: the enthusiasm was equal to the folly. But then the
spirit exhibited on this occasion was partly critical and polemical,
and it is a problem whether an actual and undoubted play of
Shakspeare’s would have excited the same ferment; and, on the other
hand, Shakspeare is an essential modern. People read and go to see
his real plays, as well as his pretended ones. The fuss made about
Ossian is another test to refer to. It was its being the supposed
revival of an old work (known only by scattered fragments or
lingering tradition) which gave it its chief interest, though there was
also a good deal of mystery and quackery concerned along with the
din and stir of national jealousy and pretension. Who reads Ossian
now? It is one of the reproaches brought against Buonaparte that he
was fond of it when young. I cannot for myself see the objection.
There is no doubt an antiquarian spirit always at work, and opposed
to the spirit of novelty-hunting; but, though opposed, it is scarcely a
match for it in a general and popular point of view. It is not long ago
that I happened to be suggesting a new translation of Don Quixote to
an enterprising bookseller; and his answer was,—‘We want new Don
Quixotes.’ I believe I deprived the same active-minded person of a
night’s rest, by telling him there was the beginning of another novel
by Goldsmith in existence. This, if it could be procured, would satisfy
both tastes for the new and the old at once. I fear it is but a fragment,
and that we must wait till a new Goldsmith appears. We may observe
of late a strong craving after Memoirs and Lives of the Dead. But
these, it may be remarked, savour so much of the real and familiar,
that the persons described differ from us only in being dead, which is
a reflection to our advantage: or, if remote and romantic in their
interest and adventures, they require to be bolstered up in some
measure by the embellishments of modern style and criticism. The
accounts of Petrarch and Laura, of Abelard and Eloise, have a
lusciousness and warmth in the subject which contrast quaintly and
pointedly with the coldness of the grave; and, after all, we prefer
Pope’s Eloise and Abelard with the modern dress and flourishes, to
the sublime and affecting simplicity of the original Letters.
In some very just and agreeable reflections on the story of Abelard
and Eloise, in a late number of a contemporary publication, there is a
quotation of some lines from Lucan, which Eloise is said to have
repeated in broken accents as she was advancing to the altar to
receive the veil:
‘O maxime conjux!
O thalamis indigne meis! Hoc juris habebat
In tantum fortuna caput? Cur impia nupsi,
Si miserum factura fui? Nunc accipe pœnas,
Sed quas sponte luam.’ Pharsalia, lib. 8.
This speech, quoted by another person, on such an occasion, might

seem cold and pedantic; but from the mouth of the passionate and
unaffected Eloise it cannot bear that interpretation. What sounding
lines! What a pomp, and yet what a familiar boldness in their
application—‘proud as when blue Iris bends!’ The reading this
account brought forcibly to mind what has struck me often before—
the unreasonableness of the complaint we constantly hear of the
ignorance and barbarism of former ages, and the folly of restricting
all refinement and literary elegance to our own. We are indeed,
indebted to the ages that have gone before us, and could not well do
without them. But in all ages there will be found still others that have
gone before with nearly equal lustre and advantage, though by
distance and the intervention of multiplied excellence, this lustre
may be dimmed or forgotten. Had it then no existence? We might,
with the same reason, suppose that the horizon is the last boundary
and verge of the round earth. Still, as we advance, it recedes from us;
and so time from its store-house pours out an endless succession of
the productions of art and genius; and the farther we explore the
obscurity, other trophies and other landmarks rise up. It is only our
ignorance that fixes a limit—as the mist gathered round the
mountain’s brow makes us fancy we are treading the edge of the
universe! Here was Heloise living at a period when monkish
indolence and superstition were at their height—in one of those that
are emphatically called the dark ages; and yet, as she is led to the
altar to make her last fatal vow, expressing her feelings in language
quite natural to her, but from which the most accomplished and
heroic of our modern females would shrink back with pretty and
affected wonder and affright. The glowing and impetuous lines which
she murmured, as she passed on, with spontaneous and rising
enthusiasm, were engraven on her heart, familiar to her as her daily
thoughts; her mind must have been full of them to overflowing, and
at the same time enriched with other stores and sources of
knowledge equally elegant and impressive; and we persist,
notwithstanding this and a thousand similar circumstances, in
indulging our surprise how people could exist, and see, and feel, in
those days, without having access to our opportunities and
acquirements, and how Shakspeare wrote long after, in a barbarous
age! The mystery in this case is of our own making. We are struck
with astonishment at finding a fine moral sentiment or a noble image
nervously expressed in an author of the age of Queen Elizabeth; not
considering that, independently of nature and feeling, which are the
same in all periods, the writers of that day, who were generally men
of education and learning, had such models before them as the one
that has been just referred to—were thoroughly acquainted with
those masters of classic thought and language, compared with whom,
in all that relates to the artificial graces of composition, the most
studied of the moderns are little better than Goths and Vandals. It is
true, we have lost sight of, and neglected the former, because the
latter have, in a great degree, superseded them, as the elevations
nearest to us intercept those farthest off; but our not availing
ourselves of this vantage-ground is no reason why our forefathers
should not (who had not our superfluity of choice), and most
assuredly they did study and cherish the precious fragments of
antiquity, collected together in their time, ‘like sunken wreck and
sumless treasuries;’ and while they did this, we need be at no loss to
account for any examples of grace, of force, or dignity in their
writings, if these must always be traced back to a previous source.
One age cannot understand how another could subsist without its
lights, as one country thinks every other must be poor for want of its
physical productions. This is a narrow and superficial view of the
subject: we should by all means rise above it. I am not for devoting
the whole of our time to the study of the classics, or of any other set
of writers, to the exclusion and neglect of nature; but I think we
should turn our thoughts enough that way to convince us of the
existence of genius and learning before our time, and to cure us of an
overweening conceit of ourselves, and of a contemptuous opinion of
the world at large. Every civilised age and country (and of these there
is not one, but a hundred) has its literature, its arts, its comforts,
large and ample, though we may know nothing of them; nor is it
(except for our own sakes) important that we should.
Books have been so multiplied in our days (like the Vanity Fair of
knowledge), and we have made such progress beyond ourselves in
some points, that it seems at first glance as if we had monopolised
every possible advantage, and the rest of the world must be left
destitute and in darkness. This is the cockneyism (with leave be it
spoken) of the nineteenth century. There is a tone of smartness and
piquancy in modern writing, to which former examples may, in one
sense, appear flat and pedantic. Our allusions are more pointed and
personal: the ancients are, in this respect, formal and prosaic
personages. Some one, not long ago, in this vulgar, shallow spirit of
criticism (which sees every thing from its own point of view), said
that the tragedies of Sophocles and Æschylus were about as good as
the pieces brought out at Sadler’s Wells or the Adelphi Theatre. An
oration of Demosthenes is thought dry and meagre, because it is not
‘full of wise saws and modern instances:’ one of Cicero’s is objected
to as flimsy and extravagant, for the same reason. There is a style in
one age which does not fall in with the taste of the public in another,
as it requires greater effeminacy and softness, greater severity or
simplicity, greater force or refinement. Guido was more admired
than Raphael in his day, because the manners were grown softer
without the strength: Sir Peter Lely was thought in his to have
eclipsed Vandyke—an opinion that no one holds at present:
Holbein’s faces must be allowed to be very different from Sir Thomas
Lawrence’s—yet the one was the favourite painter of Henry VIII., as
the other is of George IV. What should we say in our time to the
euphuism of the age of Elizabeth, when style was made a riddle, and
the court talked in conundrums? This, as a novelty and a trial of the
wits, might take for a while: afterwards, it could only seem absurd.
We must always make some allowance for a change of style, which
those who are accustomed to read none but works written within the
last twenty years neither can nor will make. When a whole
generation read, they will read none but contemporary productions.
The taste for literature becomes superficial, as it becomes universal
and is spread over a larger space. When ten thousand boarding-
school girls, who have learnt to play on the harpsichord, are brought
out in the same season, Rossini will be preferred to Mozart, as the
last new composer. I remember a very genteel young couple in the
boxes at Drury Lane being very much scandalised some years ago at
the phrase in A New Way to Pay Old Debts—‘an insolent piece of
paper’—applied to the contents of a letter—it wanted the modern
lightness and indifference. Let an old book be ever so good, it treats
(generally speaking) of topics that are stale in a style that has grown
‘somewhat musty;’ of manners that are exploded, probably by the
very ridicule thus cast upon them; of persons that no longer figure on
the stage; and of interests that have long since given place to others
in the infinite fluctuations of human affairs. Longinus complains of
the want of interest in the Odyssey, because it does not, like the Iliad,
treat of war. The very complaint we make against the latter is that it
treats of nothing else; or that, as Fuseli expresses it, every thing is
seen ‘through the blaze of war.’ Books of devotion are no longer read
(if we read Irving’s Orations, it is merely that we may go as a lounge
to see the man): even attacks on religion are out of date and insipid.
Voltaire’s jests, and the Jew’s Letters in answer (equal in wit, and
more than equal in learning), repose quietly on the shelf together.
We want something in England about Rent and the Poor Laws, and
something in France about the Charter—or Lord Byron. With the
attempts, however, to revive superstition and intolerance, a spirit of
opposition has been excited, and Pascall’s Provincial Letters have
been once more enlisted into the service. In France you meet with no
one who has read the New Heloise: the Princess of Cleves is not even
mentioned in these degenerate days. Is it not provoking with us to
see the Beggar’s Opera cut down to two acts, because some of the
allusions are too broad, and others not understood? And in America
—that Van Diemen’s Land of letters—this sterling satire is hooted off
the stage, because fortunately they have no such state of manners as
it describes before their eyes; and because, unfortunately, they have
no conception of any thing but what they see. America is singularly
and awkwardly situated in this respect. It is a new country with an
old language; and while every thing about them is of a day’s growth,
they are constantly applying to us to know what to think of it, and
taking their opinions from our books and newspapers with a strange
mixture of servility and of the spirit of contradiction. They are an
independent state in politics: in literature they are still a colony from
us—not out of their leading strings, and strangely puzzled how to
determine between the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. We have
naturalised some of their writers, who had formed themselves upon
us. This is at once a compliment to them and to ourselves. Amidst
the scramble and lottery for fame in the present day, besides puffing,
which may be regarded as the hotbed of reputation, another mode
has been attempted by transplanting it; and writers who are set
down as drivellers at home, shoot up great authors on the other side
of the water; pack up their all—a title-page and sufficient impudence;
and a work, of which the flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication, in
Shenstone’s phrase, is well known to every competent judge, is
placarded into eminence, and ‘flames in the forehead of the morning
sky’ on the walls of Paris or St. Petersburgh. I dare not mention the
instances, but so it is. Some reputations last only while the
possessors live, from which one might suppose that they gave
themselves a character for genius: others are cried up by their
gossiping acquaintances, as long as they give dinners, and make their
houses places of polite resort; and, in general, in our time, a book
may be considered to have passed the ordeal that is mentioned at all
three months after it is printed. Immortality is not even a dream—a
boy’s conceit; and posthumous fame is no more regarded by the
author than by his bookseller.[35]
This idle, dissipated turn seems to be a set-off to, or the obvious
reaction of, the exclusive admiration of the ancients, which was
formerly the fashion: as if the sun of human intellect rose and set at
Rome and Athens, and the mind of man had never exerted itself to
any purpose since. The ignorant, as well as the adept, were charmed
only with what was obsolete and far-fetched, wrapped up in technical
terms and in a learned tongue. Those who spoke and wrote a
language which hardly any one at present even understood, must of
course be wiser than we. Time, that brings so many reputations to
decay, had embalmed others and rendered them sacred. From an
implicit faith and overstrained homage paid to antiquity, we of the
modern school have taken too strong a bias to what is new; and
divide all wisdom and worth between ourselves and posterity,—not a
very formidable rival to our self-love, as we attribute all its
advantages to ourselves, though we pretend to owe little or nothing
to our predecessors. About the time of the French Revolution, it was
agreed that the world had hitherto been in its dotage or its infancy;
and that Mr. Godwin, Condorcet, and others were to begin a new
race of men—a new epoch in society. Every thing up to that period
was to be set aside as puerile or barbarous; or, if there were any
traces of thought and manliness now and then discoverable, they
were to be regarded with wonder as prodigies—as irregular and fitful
starts in that long sleep of reason and night of philosophy. In this
liberal spirit Mr. Godwin composed an Essay, to prove that, till the
publication of The Enquiry concerning Political Justice, no one
knew how to write a word of common grammar, or a style that was
not utterly uncouth, incongruous, and feeble. Addison, Swift, and
Junius were included in this censure. The English language itself
might be supposed to owe its stability and consistency, its roundness
and polish, to the whirling motion of the French Revolution. Those
who had gone before us were, like our grandfathers and
grandmothers, decrepit, superannuated people, blind and dull; poor
creatures, like flies in winter, without pith or marrow in them. The
past was barren of interest—had neither thought nor object worthy to
arrest our attention; and the future would be equally a senseless
void, except as we projected ourselves and our theories into it. There
is nothing I hate more than I do this exclusive, upstart spirit.
‘By Heavens, I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn,
So might I, standing on some pleasant lea,
Catch glimpses that might make me less forlorn,
Have sight of Proteus coming from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.’
Wordsworth’s Sonnets.
Neither do I see the good of it even in a personal and interested point

of view. By despising all that has preceded us, we teach others to
despise ourselves. Where there is no established scale nor rooted
faith in excellence, all superiority—our own as well as that of others—
soon comes to the ground. By applying the wrong end of the
magnifying glass to all objects indiscriminately, the most respectable
dwindle into insignificance, and the best are confounded with the
worst. Learning, no longer supported by opinion, or genius by fame,
is cast into the mire, and ‘trampled under the hoofs of a swinish
multitude.’ I would rather endure the most blind and bigotted
respect for great and illustrious names, than that pitiful, grovelling
humour which has no pride in intellectual excellence, and no
pleasure but in decrying those who have given proofs of it, and
reducing them to its own level. If, with the diffusion of knowledge,
we do not gain an enlargement and elevation of views, where is the
benefit? If, by tearing asunder names from things, we do not leave
even the name or shadow of excellence, it is better to let them remain
as they were; for it is better to have something to admire than
nothing—names, if not things—the shadow, if not the substance—the
tinsel, if not the gold. All can now read and write equally; and, it is
therefore presumed, equally well. Any thing short of this sweeping
conclusion is an invidious distinction; and those who claim it for
themselves or others are exclusionists in letters. Every one at least
can call names—can invent a falsehood, or repeat a story against
those who have galled their pragmatical pretensions by really adding
to the stock of general amusement or instruction. Every one in a
crowd has the power to throw dirt: nine out of ten have the
inclination. It is curious that, in an age when the most universally-
admitted claim to public distinction is literary merit, the attaining of
this distinction is almost a sure title to public contempt and obloquy.
[36]
They cry you up, because you are unknown, and do not excite
their jealousy; and run you down, when they have thus distinguished
you, out of envy and spleen at the very idol they have set up. A public
favourite is ‘kept like an apple in the jaw of an ape—first mouthed, to
be afterwards swallowed. When they need what you have gleaned, it
is but squeezing you, and spunge, you shall be dry again.’ At first they
think only of the pleasure or advantage they receive; but, on
reflection, they are mortified at the superiority implied in this
involuntary concession, and are determined to be even with you the
very first opportunity. What is the prevailing spirit of modern
literature? To defame men of letters. What are the publications that
succeed? Those that pretend to teach the public that the persons they
have been accustomed unwittingly to look up to as the lights of the
earth are no better than themselves, or a set of vagabonds or
miscreants that should be hunted out of society.[37] Hence men of
letters, losing their self-respect, become government-tools, and
prostitute their talents to the most infamous purposes, or turn dandy
scribblers, and set up for gentlemen authors in their own defence. I
like the Order of the Jesuits better than this: they made themselves
respected by the laity, kept their own secret, and did not prey on one
another. Resume then, oh! Learning, thy robe pontifical; clothe
thyself in pride and purple; join the sacred to the profane; wield both
worlds; instead of twopenny trash and mechanics’ magazines, issue
bulls and decretals; say not, let there be light, but darkness visible;
draw a bandage over the eyes of the ignorant and unlettered; hang
the terrors of superstition and despotism over them;—and for thy
pains they will bless thee: children will pull off their caps as thou
dost pass; women will courtesy; the old will wipe their beards; and
thou wilt rule once more over the base serving people, clowns, and
nobles, with a rod of iron!
ON DISAGREEABLE PEOPLE
The Monthly Magazine.]

[August, 1827.
Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are

disagreeable to others. I do not here mean to speak of persons who
offend intentionally, or are obnoxious to dislike from some palpable
defect of mind or body, ugliness, pride, ill-humour, &c.,—but of those
who are disagreeable in spite of themselves, and, as it might appear,
with almost every qualification to recommend them to others. This
want of success is owing chiefly to something in what is called their
manner; and this again has its foundation in a certain cross-grained
and unsociable state of feeling on their part, which influences us,
perhaps, without our distinctly adverting to it. The mind is a finer
instrument than we sometimes suppose it, and is not only swayed by
overt acts and tangible proofs, but has an instinctive feeling of the air
of truth. We find many individuals in whose company we pass our
time, and have no particular fault to find with their understandings
or character, and yet we are never thoroughly satisfied with them:
the reason will turn out to be, upon examination, that they are never
thoroughly satisfied with themselves, but uneasy and out of sorts all
the time; and this makes us uneasy with them, without our reflecting
on, or being able to discover the cause.
Thus, for instance, we meet with persons who do us a number of
kindnesses, who shew us every mark of respect and good-will, who
are friendly and serviceable,—and yet we do not feel grateful to them,
after all. We reproach ourselves with this as caprice or insensibility,
and try to get the better of it; but there is something in their way of
doing things that prevents us from feeling cordial or sincerely
obliged to them. We think them very worthy people, and would be
glad of an opportunity to do them a good turn if it were in our power;
but we cannot get beyond this: the utmost we can do is to save
appearances, and not come to an open rupture with them. The truth
is, in all such cases, we do not sympathise (as we ought) with them,
because they do not sympathise (as they ought) with us. They have
done what they did from a sense of duty in a cold dry manner, or
from a meddlesome busybody humour; or to shew their superiority
over us, or to patronise our infirmity; or they have dropped some
hint by the way, or blundered upon some topic they should not, and
have shewn, by one means or other, that they were occupied with any
thing but the pleasure they were affording us, or a delicate attention
to our feelings. Such persons may be styled friendly grievances. They
are commonly people of low spirits and disappointed views, who see
the discouraging side of human life, and, with the best intentions in
the world, contrive to make every thing they have to do with
uncomfortable. They are alive to your distress, and take pains to
remove it; but they have no satisfaction in the gaiety and ease they
have communicated, and are on the look-out for some new occasion
of signalizing their zeal; nor are they backward to insinuate that you
will soon have need of their assistance, to guard you against running
into fresh difficulties, or to extricate you from them. From large
benevolence of soul and ‘discourse of reason, looking before and
after,’ they are continually reminding you of something that has gone
wrong in time past, or that may do so in that which is to come, and
are surprised that their awkward hints, sly inuendos, blunt
questions, and solemn features do not excite all the complacency and
mutual good understanding in you which it is intended that they
should. When they make themselves miserable on your account, it is
hard that you will not lend them your countenance and support. This
deplorable humour of theirs does not hit any one else. They are
useful, but not agreeable people; they may assist you in your affairs,
but they depress and tyrannise over your feelings. When they have
made you happy, they will not let you be so—have no enjoyment of
the good they have done—will on no account part with their
melancholy and desponding tone—and, by their mawkish
insensibility and doleful grimaces, throw a damp over the triumph
they are called upon to celebrate. They would keep you in hot water,
that they may help you out of it. They will nurse you in a fit of
sickness (congenial sufferers!)—arbitrate a law-suit for you, and
embroil you deeper—procure you a loan of money;—but all the while
they are only delighted with rubbing the sore place, and casting the
colour of your mental or other disorders. ‘The whole need not a
physician;’ and, being once placed at ease and comfort, they have no
farther use for you as subjects for their singular beneficence, and you
are not sorry to be quit of their tiresome interference. The old
proverb, A friend in need is a friend indeed, is not verified in them.
The class of persons here spoken of are the very reverse of summer-
friends, who court you in prosperity, flatter your vanity, are the
humble servants of your follies, never see or allude to any thing
wrong, minister to your gaiety, smooth over every difficulty, and,
with the slightest approach of misfortune or of any thing unpleasant,
take French leave:—
‘As when, in prime of June, a burnished fly,
Sprung from the meads, o’er which he sweeps along,
Cheered by the breathing bloom and vital sky,
Tunes up amid these airy halls his song,
Soothing at first the gay reposing throng;
And oft he sips their bowl, or nearly drowned,
He thence recovering drives their beds among,
And scares their tender sleep with trump profound;
Then out again he flies to wing his mazy round.’
Thomson’s Castle of Indolence.
However we may despise such triflers, yet we regret them more than
those well-meaning friends on whom a dull melancholy vapour
hangs, that drags them and every one about them to the ground.
Again, there are those who might be very agreeable people, if they
had but spirit to be so; but there is a narrow, unaspiring, under-bred
tone in all they say or do. They have great sense and information—
abound in a knowledge of character—have a fund of anecdote—are
unexceptionable in manners and appearance—and yet we cannot
make up our minds to like them: we are not glad to see them, nor
sorry when they go away. Our familiarity with them, however great,
wants the principle of cement, which is a certain appearance of frank
cordiality and social enjoyment. They have no pleasure in the
subjects of their own thoughts, and therefore can communicate none
to others. There is a dry, husky, grating manner—a pettiness of detail
—a tenaciousness of particulars, however trifling or unpleasant—a
disposition to cavil—an aversion to enlarged and liberal views of
things—in short, a hard, painful, unbending matter-of-factness, from
which the spirit and effect are banished, and the letter only is
attended to, which makes it impossible to sympathise with their
discourse. To make conversation interesting or agreeable, there is
required either the habitual tone of good company, which gives a
favourable colouring to every thing—or the warmth and enthusiasm
of genius, which, though it may occasionally offend or be thrown off
its guard, makes amends by its rapturous flights, and flings a
glancing light upon all things. The literal and dogged style of
conversation resembles that of a French picture, or its mechanical
fidelity is like evidence given in a court of justice, or a police report.
From the literal to the plain-spoken, the transition is easy. The
most efficient weapon of offence is truth. Those who deal in dry and
repulsive matters-of-fact, tire out their friends; those who blurt out
hard and home truths, make themselves mortal enemies wherever
they come. There are your blunt, honest creatures, who omit no
opportunity of letting you know their minds, and are sure to tell you
all the ill, and conceal all the good they hear of you. They would not
flatter you for the world, and to caution you against the malice of
others, they think the province of a friend. This is not candour, but
impudence; and yet they think it odd you are not charmed with their
unreserved communicativeness of disposition. Gossips and tale-
bearers, on the contrary, who supply the tittle-tattle of the
neighbourhood, flatter you to your face, and laugh at you behind
your back, are welcome and agreeable guests in all companies.
Though you know it will be your turn next, yet for the sake of the
immediate gratification, you are contented to pay your share of the
public tax upon character, and are better pleased with the falsehoods
that never reach your ears, than with the truths that others (less
complaisant and more sincere) utter to your face—so short-sighted
and willing to be imposed upon is our self-love! There is a man, who
has the air of not being convinced without an argument: you avoid
him as if he were a lion in your path. There is another, who asks you
fifty questions as to the commonest things you advance: you would
sooner pardon a fellow who held a pistol to your breast and
demanded your money. No one regards a turnpike-keeper, or a
custom-house officer, with a friendly eye: he who stops you in an
excursion of fancy, or ransacks the articles of your belief obstinately
and churlishly, to distinguish the spurious from the genuine, is still
more your foe. These inquisitors and cross-examiners upon system
make ten enemies for every controversy in which they engage. The
world dread nothing so much as being convinced of their errors. In
doing them this piece of service, you make war equally on their
prejudices, their interests, their pride, and indolence. You not only
set up for a superiority of understanding over them, which they hate,
but you deprive them of their ordinary grounds of action, their topics
of discourse, of their confidence in themselves, and those to whom
they have been accustomed to look up for instruction and advice. It is
making children of them. You unhinge all their established opinions
and trains of thought; and after leaving them in this listless, vacant,
unsettled state—dissatisfied with their own notions and shocked at
yours—you expect them to court and be delighted with your
company, because, forsooth, you have only expressed your sincere
and conscientious convictions. Mankind are not deceived by
professions, unless they choose. They think that this pill of true
doctrine, however it may be gilded over, is full of gall and bitterness
to them; and, again, it is a maxim of which the vulgar are firmly
persuaded, that plain-speaking (as it is called) is, nine parts in ten,
spleen and self-opinion; and the other part, perhaps, honesty. Those
who will not abate an inch in argument, and are always seeking to
recover the wind of you, are, in the eye of the world, disagreeable,
unconscionable people, who ought to be sent to Coventry, or left to
wrangle by themselves. No persons, however, are more averse to
contradiction than these same dogmatists. What shews our
susceptibility on this point is, there is no flattery so adroit or
effectual as that of implicit assent. Any one, however mean his
capacity or ill-qualified to judge, who gives way to all our sentiments,
and never seems to think but as we do, is indeed an alter idem—
another self; and we admit him without scruple into our entire
confidence, ‘yea, into our heart of hearts.’
It is the same in books. Those which, under the disguise of plain-
speaking, vent paradoxes, and set their faces against the common
sense of mankind, are neither ‘the volumes
——‘That enrich the shops,
That pass with approbation through the land;’
nor, I fear, can it be added—
‘That bring their authors an immortal fame.’
They excite a clamour and opposition at first, and are in general soon
consigned to oblivion. Even if the opinions are in the end adopted,
the authors gain little by it, and their names remain in their original
obloquy; for the public will own no obligations to such ungracious
benefactors. In like manner, there are many books written in a very
delightful vein, though with little in them, and that are accordingly
popular. Their principle is to please, and not to offend; and they
succeed in both objects. We are contented with the deference shown
to our feelings for the time, and grant a truce both to wit and
wisdom. The ‘courteous reader’ and the good-natured author are well
matched in this instance, and find their account in mutual
tenderness and forbearance to each other’s infirmities. I am not sure
that Walton’s Angler is not a book of this last description—
‘That dallies with the innocence of thought,
Like the old age.’
Hobbes and Mandeville are in the opposite extreme, and have met
with a correspondent fate. The Tatler and the Spectator are in the
golden mean, carry instruction as far as it can go without shocking,
and give the most exquisite pleasure without one particle of pain.
‘Desire to please, and you will infallibly please,’ is a maxim equally
applicable to the study or the drawing-room. Thus also we see actors
of very small pretensions, and who have scarce any other merit than
that of being on good terms with themselves, and in high good
humour with their parts (though they hardly understand a word of
them), who are universal favourites with the audience. Others, who
are masters of their art, and in whom no slip or flaw can be detected,
you have no pleasure in seeing, from something dry, repulsive, and
unconciliating in their manner; and you almost hate the very
mention of their names, as an unavailing appeal to your candid
decision in their favour, and as taxing you with injustice for refusing
it.
We may observe persons who seem to take a peculiar delight in the
disagreeable. They catch all sorts of uncouth tones and gestures, the
manners and dialect of clowns and hoydens, and aim at vulgarity as
desperately as others ape gentility. [This is what is often understood
by a love of low life.] They say the most unwarrantable things,
without meaning or feeling what they say. What startles or shocks
other people, is to them a sport—an amusing excitement—a fillip to
their constitutions; and from the bluntness of their perceptions, and
a certain wilfulness of spirit, not being able to enter into the refined
and agreeable, they make a merit of despising every thing of the
kind. Masculine women, for example, are those who, not being
distinguished by the charms and delicacy of the sex, affect a
superiority over it by throwing aside all decorum. We also find
another class, who continually do and say what they ought not, and
what they do not intend, and who are governed almost entirely by an
instinct of absurdity. Owing to a perversity of imagination or
irritability of nerve, the idea that a thing is improper acts as a
provocation to it: the fear of committing a blunder is so strong, that
in their agitation they bolt out whatever is uppermost in their minds,
before they are aware of the consequence. The dread of something
wrong haunts and rivets their attention to it; and an uneasy, morbid
apprehensiveness of temper takes away their self-possession, and
hurries them into the very mistakes they are most anxious to avoid.
If we look about us, and ask who are the agreeable and
disagreeable people in the world, we shall see that it does not depend
on their virtues or vices—their understanding or stupidity—but as
much on the degree of pleasure or pain they seem to feel in ordinary
social intercourse. What signify all the good qualities any one
possesses, if he is none the better for them himself? If the cause is so
delightful, the effect ought to be so too. We enjoy a friend’s society
only in proportion as he is satisfied with ours. Even wit, however it
may startle, is only agreeable as it is sheathed in good-humour.
There are a kind of intellectual stammerers, who are delivered of
their good things with pain and effort; and consequently what costs
them such evident uneasiness does not impart unmixed delight to
the bystanders. There are those, on the contrary, whose sallies cost
them nothing—who abound in a flow of pleasantry and good-
humour; and who float down the stream with them carelessly and
triumphantly,—
‘Wit at the helm, and Pleasure at the prow.’
Perhaps it may be said of English wit in general, that it too much
resembles pointed lead: after all, there is something heavy and dull
in it! The race of small wits are not the least agreeable people in the
world. They have their little joke to themselves, enjoy it, and do not
set up any preposterous pretensions to thwart the current of our self-
love. Toad-eating is accounted a thriving profession; and a butt,
according to the Spectator, is a highly useful member of society—as
one who takes whatever is said of him in good part, and as necessary
to conduct off the spleen and superfluous petulance of the company.
Opposed to these are the swaggering bullies—the licensed wits—the
free-thinkers—the loud talkers, who, in the jockey phrase, have lost
their mouths, and cannot be reined in by any regard to decency or
common sense. The more obnoxious the subject, the more are they
charmed with it, converting their want of feeling into a proof of
superiority to vulgar prejudice and squeamish affectation. But there
is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body. There
are some objects that shock the sense, and cannot with propriety be
mentioned: there are naked truths that offend the mind, and ought
to be kept out of sight as much as possible. For human nature cannot
bear to be too hardly pressed upon. One of these cynical truisms,
when brought forward to the world, may be forgiven as a slip of the
pen: a succession of them, denoting a deliberate purpose and malice
prepense, must ruin any writer. Lord Byron had got into an irregular
course of these a little before his death—seemed desirous, in
imitation of Mr. Shelley, to run the gauntlet of public obloquy—and,
at the same time, wishing to screen himself from the censure he
defied, dedicated his Cain to Sir Walter Scott—a pretty godfather to
such a bantling!
Some persons are of so teazing and fidgetty a turn of mind, that
they do not give you a moment’s rest. Every thing goes wrong with
them. They complain of a headache or the weather. They take up a
book, and lay it down again—venture an opinion, and retract it
before they have half done—offer to serve you, and prevent some one
else from doing it. If you dine with them at a tavern, in order to be
more at your ease, the fish is too little done—the sauce is not the
right one; they ask for a sort of wine which they think is not to be
had, or if it is, after some trouble, procured, do not touch it; they give
the waiter fifty contradictory orders, and are restless and sit on
thorns the whole of dinner-time. All this is owing to a want of robust
health, and of a strong spirit of enjoyment; it is a fastidious habit of
mind, produced by a valetudinary habit of body: they are out of sorts
with every thing, and of course their ill-humour and captiousness
communicates itself to you, who are as little delighted with them as
they are with other things. Another sort of people, equally
objectionable with this helpless class, who are disconcerted by a
shower of rain or stopped by an insect’s wing, are those who, in the
opposite spirit, will have every thing their own way, and carry all
before them—who cannot brook the slightest shadow of opposition—
who are always in the heat of an argument—who knit their brows and
clench their teeth in some speculative discussion, as if they were
engaged in a personal quarrel—and who, though successful over
almost every competitor, seem still to resent the very offer of
resistance to their supposed authority, and are as angry as if they had
sustained some premeditated injury. There is an impatience of
temper and an intolerance of opinion in this that conciliates neither
our affection nor esteem. To such persons nothing appears of any
moment but the indulgence of a domineering intellectual superiority
to the disregard and discomfiture of their own and every body else’s
comfort. Mounted on an abstract proposition, they trample on every
courtesy and decency of behaviour; and though, perhaps, they do not
intend the gross personalities they are guilty of, yet they cannot be
acquitted of a want of due consideration for others, and of an
intolerable egotism in the support of truth and justice. You may hear
one of these Quixotic declaimers pleading the cause of humanity in a
voice of thunder, or expatiating on the beauty of a Guido with
features distorted with rage and scorn. This is not a very amiable or
edifying spectacle.
There are persons who cannot make friends. Who are they? Those
who cannot be friends. It is not the want of understanding or good-
nature, of entertaining or useful qualities, that you complain of: on
the contrary, they have probably many points of attraction; but they
have one that neutralises all these—they care nothing about you, and
are neither the better nor worse for what you think of them. They
manifest no joy at your approach; and when you leave them, it is
with a feeling that they can do just as well without you. This is not
sullenness, nor indifference, nor absence of mind; but they are intent
solely on their own thoughts, and you are merely one of the subjects
they exercise them upon. They live in society as in a solitude; and,

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Interacting Electrons Theory and

Computational Approaches 1st Edition

Electronic Structure Basic Theory and Practical Methods

Alternative Approaches in Conflict Resolution 1st

Low Energy Electrons Fundamentals and Applications 1st

Group Processes Data Driven Computational Approaches

Pattern Recognition in Computational Molecular Biology:

Martin Davis on Computability Computational Logic and

Behavioral Operational Research: Theory, Methodology

Models in Microeconomic Theory 1st Edition Martin J.

Theory and Computational Approaches

Recent progress in the theory and computation of electronic structure is bringing an

R ICHARD M. M ARTIN is Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

Preface page xvii

3.4 Normal metals and Fermi liquid theory 49

Part II Foundations of theory for many-body systems

4 Mean fields and auxiliary systems 59

6 Many-body wavefunctions 122

6.7 Beyond Slater determinants 139

7 Particles and quasi-particles 144

8 Functionals in many-particle physics 169

Part III Many-body Green’s function methods

9 Many-body perturbation theory: expansion in the interaction 193

10 Many-body perturbation theory via functional derivatives 222

11 The RPA and the GW approximation for the self-energy 245

12 GWA calculations in practice 280

13 GWA calculations: illustrative results 311

13.6 A comment on temperature 341

14 RPA and beyond: the Bethe–Salpeter equation 345

15 Beyond the GW approximation 389

16 Dynamical mean-field theory 421

16.6 Self-energy functional and variational equations 441

17 Beyond the single-site approximation in DMFT 457

18 Solvers for embedded systems 479

19 Characteristic hamiltonians for solids with d and f states 502

19.5 Combining DMFT and DFT 515

20 Examples of calculations for solids with d and f states 527

21 Combining Green’s functions approaches: an outlook 553

Part IV Stochastic methods

22 Introduction to stochastic methods 577

22.5 The “heat bath” algorithm 586

F.2 Hedin’s equations in a basis 717

Recent progress in the theory and computation of electronic structure is bringing an

Acronyms most used

General physical quantities

Time and frequency

Coordinates and operators

Ô general operator in Schrödinger picture

Hamiltonian and eigenstates

T (R) or (R) trial wavefunction

Ĥ0 independent-particle hamiltonian

Parameters of model hamiltonians

Correlation functions, Green’s functions, response functions, self-energy, etc.

n(r, r ) pair distribution function (also n(r, σ ; r , σ  ))

G one-body Green’s function expressed as a function of

G Green’s function for embedded site or cell

G2 two-particle Green’s function

n(r, r ) pair distribution function (also n(r, σ ; r , σ ))

cf crystal field splitting