Role of the Ward Identity and Relevance of the G0W0 Approximation in Normal and Superconducting States

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the G0W0 approximation effectively captures key physical properties in normal and superconducting states by satisfying the Ward identity, often outperforming fully self-consistent GW methods.

Contribution

It shows that the G0W0 approximation, satisfying the Ward identity, accurately reproduces quasiparticle dispersions and superconducting transition temperatures, challenging the conventional view of its limitations.

Findings

G0W0 reproduces quasiparticle dispersion in gapped systems.

G0W0 yields superconducting Tc close to gauge-invariant self-consistent results.

G0W0 effectively accounts for vertex and high-order corrections.

Abstract

On the basis of the self-consistent calculation scheme for the electron self-energy with the use of the three-point vertex function always satisfying the Ward identity, we find that the obtained quasiparticle dispersion in the normal state in gapped systems such as semiconductors, insulators, and molecules is well reproduced by that in the one-shot GW (or G0W0) approximation. In calculating the superconducting transition temperature Tc, we also find a similar situation; the result for Tc in the gauge-invariant self-consistent (GISC) framework including the effect of the vertex corrections satisfying the Ward identity is different from that in the conventional Eliashberg theory (which amounts to the GW approximation for superconductivity) but is close to that in the G0W0 approximation. Those facts indicate that the G0W0 approximation actually takes proper account of both vertex and high-order self-energy corrections in a mutually cancelling manner and thus we can understand that the G0W0 approximation is better than the fully self-consistent GW one in obtaining some of physical quantities.