A fully self-consistent treatment of collective fluctuations in quantum liquids

The problem of calculating collective density fluctuations in quantum liquids is revisited. A fully quantum mechanical self-consistent treatment based on a quantum mode-coupling theory [E. Rabani and D.R. Reichman, J. Chem. Phys. 116, 6271 (2002)] is presented. The theory is compared with the maximum entropy analytic continuation approach and with available experimental results. The quantum mode-coupling theory provides semiquantitative results for both short and long time dynamics. The proper description of long time phenomena is important in future study of problems related to the physics of glassy quantum systems, and to the study of collective fluctuations in Bose fluids. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.