Some exact results for the particle number projected BCS approach of the isovector proton-neutron pairing

The mean values of a many-body Hamiltonian including a proton-neutron pairing term and matrix elements of one-, two- and four-body operators within a basis of particle number projected BCS states, are analytically expressed in terms of a single function Q(N) depending on the number of particles, $N$. The function Q(N) is calculated using a recursion in $N$ in which the shells and the BCS angles are kept the same for any step of iteration. An illustrative example is numerically considered in a restricted single particle space. Some specific features for the standard BCS, the projection after variation approach as well as for the variation after projection formalism, are pointed out.