ZERO-POINT FLUCTUATIONS IN THE NUCLEAR BORN-OPPENHEIMER GROUND STATE

Abstract

The small-amplitude oscillations of rigid nuclei around the equilibrium state are described by means of the nuclear Born-Oppenheimer (NBO) method. In this limit, the method is shown to give back the random phase approximation (RPA) equations of motion. The contribution of the zero-point fluctuations to the ground state are examined, and the NBO ground state energy derived is shown to be identical to the RPA ground state energy.