Improved treatment of ground-state correlations: Modified random phase approximation

A method is proposed to improve the treatment of the ground-state correlations in a finite Fermi system compared with the standard random phase approximation ~RPA! or earlier suggested renormalized RPA. The correlations lead to nonzero quasiparticle occupancies in the ground state. The method employs modified quasiparticles obtained by a canonical transformation of usual quasiparticles explicitly involving the quasiparticle occupation numbers. A set of equations is derived, which allows one to determine these occupation numbers along with the RPA modes. The formalism is illustrated with the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, and a model for superconducting pairing at a finite temperature. With the new approach, the ground-state correlations are significantly reduced, the energy of the first excited state becomes closer to the exact solution around the region where the RPA collapses, and the superconducting gap monotonously decreases instead of the sharp phase transition. We discuss the effective equivalence of the interaction effects and variation of temperature for the ground-state correlations.