Foundation of one-particle reduced density matrix functional theory for excited states

Abstract

In [arXiv:2106.02560] we proposed a reduced density matrix functional theory (RDMFT) for calculating energies of selected eigenstates of interacting many-fermion systems. Here, we develop a solid foundation for this so-called w-RDMFT and present the details of various derivations. First, we explain how a generalization of the Ritz variational principle to ensemble states with fixed weights w in combination with the constrained search would lead to a universal functional of the one-particle reduced density matrix. To turn this into a viable functional theory, however, we also need to implement an exact convex relaxation. This general procedure includes Valone's pioneering work on ground state RDMFT as the special case w = (1, 0, . . .). Then, we work out in a comprehensive manner a methodology for deriving a compact description of the functional's domain. This leads to a hierarchy of generalized exclusion principle constraints which we illustrate in great detail. By anticipating their future pivotal role in functional theories and to keep our work self-contained, several required concepts from convex analysis are introduced and discussed. II. KEY CONCEPTS FROM CONVEX ANALYSISIn this section, we introduce and explain different basic concepts from convex analysis, such as convex hulls, vector majorization, permutohedra, variational principles, exact convex relaxation and conjugation. All these con-