Finite temperature SU(3) LMG model: Mean-field versus exact calculation

Abstract

A variational approach is applied to the description of temperature effects in a N-particle exactly soluble schematic model, with SU(3) symmetry. The ground-state energy for different couplings and the strength distribution for a weak coupling versus temperature are compared with the exact results. For a weak coupling, or for a large enough N, the mean-field approximation agrees well with the exact values. For T ≠ 0, new RPA modes appear which did not exist at T = 0. © 1996 IOP Publishing Ltd.