Particle-hole excitations within a self-consistent random-phase approximation

We present a method for the treatment of correlations in finite Fermi systems in a more consistent way than the random phase approximation (RPA). The main differences with respect to previous approaches are underlined and discussed. In particular, no use of renormalized operators is made. By means of the method of linearization of equations of motion, we derive a set of RPA-like equations depending only on the one-body density matrix. The latter is no more assumed to be diagonal and it is expressed in terms of the X and Y amplitudes of the particle-hole phonon operators. This set of nonlinear equations is solved via an iterative procedure, which allows us to calculate the energies and the wave functions of the excited states. After presenting our approach in its general formulation, we test its quality by using metal clusters as a good test laboratory for a generic many-body system. Comparison to RPA shows significant improvements. We discuss also how the present approach can be further extended beyond the particle-hole configuration space, getting an approximation scheme in which energy weighted SUM rules are exactly preserved, thus solving a problem common to all extension of RPA proposed until now. The implementation of such approach will be afforded in a future work.