Gauge Invariant Variational Approach with Fermions: the Schwinger Model

TL;DR

This paper extends a gauge invariant variational method to fermionic theories and demonstrates its exactness in the solvable massless Schwinger model in 1+1 dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces a gauge invariant variational approach for fermionic theories and proves its exactness in the massless Schwinger model.

Findings

The variational method yields exact results in the Schwinger model.

The approach successfully incorporates gauge invariance with fermions.

Demonstrates the method's potential for other gauge theories with fermions.

Abstract

We extend the gauge invariant variational approach of Phys. Rev. D52 (1995) 3719, hep-th/9408081, to theories with fermions. As the simplest example we consider the massless Schwinger model in 1+1 dimensions. We show that in this solvable model the simple variational calculation gives exact results.