Occupation numbers in a quantum canonical ensemble: a projection operator approach

Wim Magnus, Fons Brosens

Published 2018-09-12Version 1

Recently, we have used a projection operator to fix the number of particles in a second quantization approach in order to deal with the canonical ensemble. Having been applied earlier to handle various problems in nuclear physics that involve fixed particle numbers, the projector formalism was extended to grant access as well to quantum-statistical averages in condensed matter physics, such as particle densities and correlation functions. In this light, the occupation numbers of the subsequent single-particle energy eigenstates are key quantities to be examined. The goal of this paper is 1) to provide a sound extension of the projector formalism directly addressing the occupation numbers as well as the chemical potential, and 2) to demonstrate how the emerging problems related to numerical instability for fermions can be resolved to obtain the canonical statistical quantities for both fermions and bosons.