A geometrical approach to the mean density of states in many-body quantum systems

Abstract: We present a novel analytical approach for the calculation of the mean density of states in many-body systems made of confined indistinguishable and non-interacting particles. Our method makes explicit the intrinsic geometry inherent in the symmetrization postulate and, in the spirit of the usual Weyl expansion for the smooth part of the density of states in single-particle confined systems, our results take the form of a sum over clusters of particles moving freely around manifolds in configuration space invariant under elements of the group of permutations. Being asymptotic, our approximation gives increasingly better results for large excitation energies and we formally confirm that it coincides with the celebrated Bethe estimate in the appropriate region. Moreover, our construction gives the correct high energy asymptotics expected from general considerations, and shows that the emergence of the fermionic ground state is actually a consequence of an extremely delicate large cancellation effect. Remarkably, our expansion in cluster zones is naturally incorporated for systems of interacting particles, opening the road to address the fundamental problem about the interplay between confinement and interactions in many-body systems of identical particles.