Beyond the time independent mean field theory for nuclear and atomic reactions: Inclusion of particle-hole correlations in a generalized random phase approximation

The time independent mean field method (TIMF) for scattering defines biorthonormal sets of single-particle wave functions and corresponding creation and annihilation operators. 2p - 2h correlations can be introduced through a generalized random phase approximation; 1p - 1h contributions vanish (Brillouin theorem). While the general variational method for scattering by Giraud and Nagarajan solves inhomogeneous Euler equations by inversion of the standard, hermitean Hamiltonian, the present approach diagonalizes a non-hermitean Hamiltonian, which carries the information about entrance and exit channels.