Effective Hamiltonian for Scalar Theories in the Gaussian Approximation

We use a Gaussian wave functional for the ground state to reorder the Hamiltonian into a free part with a variationally determined mass and the rest. Once spontaneous symmetry breaking is taken into account, the residual Hamiltonian can, in principle, be treated perturbatively. In this scheme we analyze the $O(1)$ and $O(2)$ scalar models. For the $O(2)$--theory we first explicitly calculate the massless Goldstone excitation and then show that the one-loop corrections of the effective Hamiltonian do not generate a mass.