Legendre-spectral Dyson equation solver with super-exponential convergence

Abstract

Quantum many-body systems in thermal equilibrium can be described by the imaginary time Green's function formalism. However, the treatment of large molecular or solid ab initio problems with a fully realistic Hamiltonian in large basis sets is hampered by the storage of the Green's function and the precision of the solution of the Dyson equation. We present a Legendre-spectral algorithm for solving the Dyson equation that addresses both of these issues. By formulating the algorithm in Legendre coefficient space, our method inherits the known faster-than-exponential convergence of the Green's function's Legendre series expansion. In this basis, the fast recursive method for Legendre polynomial convolution enables us to develop a Dyson equation solver with quadratic scaling. We present benchmarks of the algorithm by computing the dissociation energy of the helium dimer He₂ within dressed second-order perturbation theory. For this system, the application of the Legendre spectral algorithm allows us to achieve an energy accuracy of 10^-9E_h with only a few hundred expansion coefficients.