Underdetermined Dyson-Schwinger Equations

This Letter examines the effectiveness of the Dyson-Schwinger (DS) equations as a calculational tool in quantum field theory. The DS equations are an infinite sequence of coupled equations that are satisfied exactly by the connected Green's functions Gₙ of the field theory. These equations link lower to higher Green's functions and, if they are truncated, the resulting finite system of equations is underdetermined. The simplest way to solve the underdetermined system is to set all higher Green's function(s) to zero and then to solve the resulting determined system for the first few Green's functions. The G₁ or G₂ so obtained can be compared with exact results in solvable models to see if the accuracy improves for high-order truncations. Five D=0 models are studied: Hermitian ϕ⁴ and ϕ⁶ and non-Hermitian iϕ³, -ϕ⁴, and iϕ⁵ theories. The truncated DS equations give a sequence of approximants that converge slowly to a limiting value but this limiting value always differs from the exact value by a few percent. More sophisticated truncation schemes based on mean-field-like approximations do not fix this formidable calculational problem.