Addressing energy density functionals in the language of path-integrals I: comparative study of diagrammatic techniques applied to the (0 + 0)-D O ( N )-symmetric φ ^4 -theory

The energy density functional (EDF) method is currently the only microscopic theoretical approach able to tackle the entire nuclear chart. Nevertheless, it suffers from limitations resulting from its empirical character and deteriorating its reliability. This paper is part of a larger program that aims at formulating the EDF approach as an effective field theory (EFT) in order to overcome these limitations. A relevant framework to achieve this is the path-integral formulation of quantum field theory. The latter indeed provides a wide variety of treatments of the many-body problem well suited to deal with non-perturbative interactions and to exploit a Lagrangian resulting from an EFT as a starting point. While developing the formalism in a general setting, we present below a comparative study of such techniques applied to a toy model, i.e. the (0 + 0)-D O ( N )-symmetric φ ^4 -theory. More specifically, our focus will be on the following diagrammatic techniques: loop expansion, optimized perturbation theory and self-consistent perturbation theory. With these methods, we notably address the spontaneous breakdown of the O ( N ) symmetry with care especially since spontaneous symmetry breakings play a paramount role in current implementations of the EDF approach.