Eur. Phys. J. C (2005) 44: 293-298
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2005-02358-x
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2005-02358-x
Theoretical Physics
A variational method from the variance of energy
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universitá di Catania, INFN Sez. di Catania and INFM UdR di Catania, via S. Sofia 64, 95123, Catania, Italy
* e-mail: fabio.siringo@ct.infn.it
A variational method is studied based on the minimum of energy variance. The method is tested on exactly soluble problems in quantum mechanics, and is shown to be a useful tool whenever the properties of states are more relevant than the eigenvalues. In quantum field theory the method provides a consistent second-order extension to the Gaussian effective potential.
PACS. 03.65.-w, 11.10.-z, 05.30.-d
© Springer-Verlag, 2005
