Intro to Green’s Functions

David Foster
October 28, 2012

1 Green’s functions as used outside of many body physics

Green’s functions come in many disguises and do many jobs, so it can be difficult to see the unification of
the Green’s function concept. In addition, the term Green’s function is used to describe objects that are
not exactly Green’s functions in the original sense. The original sense of the Green’s function is a function
of two variables, that, when acted up by a particular L, a linear differential operator that acts on the first
variable, produces the appropriate delta function, δ(x − x0 ), or δnn0 , which is zero when the variables are not
equal. The discussion here often follows Bruss and Flensberg.

1.1 The potential-source Green’s function of classical physics

The Green’s function is best introduced as the potential φ originating from a point source. The point source
is something which produces a potential (and a field—and perhaps we want to work with the field, but often
we work with potentials). The source can be stationary, like a point mass producing a Newtonion gravity
potential, or time varying, such as an oscillating electric dipole.
There is a linear, usually second order differential equation relating the field to the source. The time
independent form is

Lr φ(r) = f (r) (1)

An example is the Poisson equation, where Lr = ∇2r .

We can decompose the problem above by asking: What if we had a function G(r, r 0 ) that is the potential
φ(r) created by a point source at r 0 ? Such a function G is called a Green’s function and it obeys

Lr G(r, r 0 ) = δ(r − r 0 ) (2)

For a system governed by a linear differential equation, not only can f can be constructed as a sum
of point sources, but the resulting field φ is a sum of all the fields (all the G(r, r 0 )s) produced by those
individual point sources (at points r 0 ). Since f gives the weight of each point source, f is also the weight of
each resulting point-source-generated field. That is,
Z
φ(r) = f (r 0 )G(r, r 0 )dr 0 (3)

which can be checked by substitution into Eq. [1].

There is one complication: any solution η(r) of the homogeneous equation Lr η = 0 can be added to G
(as η(r)η(r 0 )) and it will still obey Eq. [2], but it will result in a different φ when inserted into Eq. [3]. Which

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G to use is determined by boundary conditions. If the boundary is at infinity and φ → 0 on the boundary,
then the only sources in the universe are included in f . Then G is taken to be the point-source response
that decays at infinity, for example 1/|r − r 0 | for an electrostatic problem.
Again, in classical physics, a Green’s function is the field/potential response to a point source.

1.2 The time independent Schrödinger equation

Unfortunately this lucid interpretation cannot hold when Green’s functions are used with the Schrödinger
equation, because this equation is not a source-field relation. Even for the time independent Schrödinger
equation, there are several ways to use Green’s functions. This is because there are several choices of
what quantities will play the role of L, φ and f . One (probably not very useful) choice is to let L = H,
Green’s function is G(r, r 0 ) = Σi (1/Ei )hr 0 |ψi ihψi |ri, assuming the
φ = ψi , and f = Ei ψi , in which case theP
eigenfunctions ψi are complete (so that i ψi∗ (r 0 )ψi (r) = δ(r − r 0 )).
Here we formulate a perturbative elastic scattering problem using Green’s function. We focus on a single
(0)
eigenvalue and take L = [E − H (0) ] and f = V ψ. There is still a degree of ambiguity, as ψ or ∆ψ ≡ ψ − ψk0
P (0)
or even ∆ψ + k ck ψk can take the role of φ and be expanded in Green’s functions. By adding arbitrary
eigensolutions with energy E to G, these different expansions can be realized.
For the unperturbed problem [E − H (0) ]ψ (0) = 0, the perturbed problem can then be written as

[E − H (0) ]∆ψ = V ψ (4)

The (unperturbed) Green’s function for the time independent Schrödinger equation is defined as

[E − H (0) (r)]G0 (r, r 0 ) = δ(r − r 0 ) (5)

The more explicit, matrix-like version of the equation is

Z
dr 00 [E − H (0) ](r, r 00 )G0 (r 00 , r 0 ) = δ(r − r 0 ) (6)

Using linear superposition as in the classical case above, we get 1

Z
∆ψ(r) = dr 0 G0 (r, r 0 )V (r 0 )ψ(r 0 ), or
Z
(0)
ψ(r) = ψk0 (r) + dr 0 G0 (r, r 0 )V (r 0 )ψ(r 0 ) (7)

Here we have used the notation G0 because the Green’s function is related to the unperturbed problem in
Eq. 5. In fact this equation means that G0 is an inverse of E − H (0) :

G−1
0 (r, E) = E − H0 (r) (8)

Equation 7 is an integral equation, giving the exact solution ψ in terms of itself in the integral on the
RHS. In the first Born approximation (I believe this is the B.A.), the perturbing potential V acts on the
unperturbed (incident) wavefunction, which we know. This amounts to replacing the ψ on the RHS of Eq. 7
1 If we had started with the Schrödinger equation having ψ instead of ∆ψ on the left hand side of Eq. [5], we would have the

regular Schrödinger equation.

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 (0) (0)
with ψk0 . In fact we can calculate the solution to Eq. 7 by interation. The first step is to put ψk0 on the
right hand side (the Born approximation) and then integrate to obtain ψ. This ψ is first order in V . We
then plug this ψ in to the RHS again and solve for a new ψ, which is second order, and so on.
We can also define a different, “full” Green’s function G, by
[E − H (0) (r) − V (r)]G(r, r 0 ) = δ(r − r 0 ) (9)
Here we are even further from the original concept of Green’s function, because the left hand operater acting
on the true solution ψ will give zero. So what is left that needs to be expanded in terms of the Green’s
function? I don’t know, but the advantage of this type of Green’s function is that, if we knew G, we could
obtain ψ easily through
Z
(0) (0)
ψ(r) = ψk0 (r) + dr 0 G(r, r 0 )V (r 0 )ψk0 (r 0 ) (10)

which can be seen by acting from the left with [E − H (0) − V ].

A succinct relationship between between the full and unperturbed Green’s functions of the form G =
G0 + G0 V G is called a (or the) Dyson equation. An equation of this form exists for various many body
theory systems and for the Schrödinger equation, both time dependent and time independent. To derive this
equation from the equations above, one begins to write out the solution of Eq. 7 by iteration:
(0) (0) (0)
ψ = ψk0 + G0 V (ψk0 + G0 V (ψk0 + . . .)
(0) (0)
= ψk0 + (G0 + G0 V G0 + G0 V G0 V G0 + . . .)V ψk0 (11)
Comparing with Eq. 10, one see that the infinite series inside the parentheses must be G. Examining the
series shows that it obeys the Dyson equation
G = G0 + G0 V G (12)

1.3 The time dependent Schrödinger equation

The above analysis can be done with the time dependent Schrödinger equation without restricting the
problem to elastic scattering. The differential equations are
[i~∂t − H (0) (r)]G0 (rt, r 0 t0 ) = δ(r − r 0 )δ(t − t0 ), (13)
(0) 0 0 0 0
[i~∂t − H (r) − V (r)]G(rt, r t ) = δ(r − r )δ(t − t ) (14)
Again, the full solution ψ can be written in terms of either Green’s function:
Z Z
(0)
ψ(r, t) = ψk0 (r, t) + dr 0 dt0 G0 (rt, r 0 t0 )V (r 0 )ψ(r 0 , t0 )
Z Z
(0) 0 (0)
= ψk0 (r, t) + dr dt0 G(rt, r 0 t0 )V (r 0 )ψk0 (r 0 , t0 ) (15)

and Dyson’s equation (12) holds.

The time-dependent Green’s function has a special superpower: it is the propagator that takes ψ from a
time t1 to a later time t2 > t1 . If the initial-type boundary condition on G is
lim G(rt2 , r 0 t1 ) = δ(r − r 0 ) (16)
t2 →t1+

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then
Z
ψ(r, t2 ) = dr 0 G(rt2 , r 0 t1 )ψ(r 0 , t1 ) (17)

for t1 < t2 . To verify, one can see that operating on each side of this equation with the parabolic differential
operator [i~∂t2 − H] yields the true equation 0 = 0. We can also go the other way: Since only one initial-type
boundary equation is necessary to uniquely specify a solution of the parabolic differential equation (14), then
if we have a G that satisfies both Eq. (14) and the physical requirement of Eq. (16), then it is a unique
solution. The G implicitly defined by Eq. (17) satisfies both (when one includes the physical requirment
that limt2 →t1+ ψ(r, t2 ) = ψ(r, t1 )). Thus Eq. (14) and Eq. (16) imply Eq. (17), which says that G is the
propagator of the wavefunction.
The Green’s function we have discused above is called the retarded Green’s function, because it propagates
forward in time and thus the result is delayed from the input. The time propagation operator for a time
independent Hamiltonian is
−i
U (t, t0 ) = exp[ (t − t0 )H] (18)
~
The retarded Green’s function is then
−i
GR (rt, r 0 t0 ) = θ(t − t0 )hr| exp[ (t − t0 )H]|r 0 i (19)
~
My extremely introductory introduction ends here, and you may continue it with the chapters of most
texts on Green’s function theory in quantum mechanics and many-body physics. Refs. [1, 2] are excellent
for condensed matter many-body theory.

References
[1] Henrik Bruus and Karsten Flensberg. Many-Body Quantum Theoy in Condensed Matter Physics. Oxford,
2004.
[2] Gabriele F. Giuliani and Giovanni Vignale. Quantum Theory of the Electron Liquid. Cambridge, 2005.