Correlated Hartree‐Fock Theory of the Electron—Hole Plasma Containing Exciton Bound States

For the electron—hole plasma the Hartree‐Fock scheme is extended to include those pair correlations leading to excitonic bound states. Thus an effective single‐exciton Schrödinger equation is obtained systematically accounting for the interaction of an exciton with others in a mean‐field approximation valid to linear order in the density. This single‐exciton equation may also be derived from a many‐exciton Hamiltonian subject to Hartree‐Fock decoupling. The excitons are represented by Boson operators, the Pauli principle for the electrons and holes being maintained by a proper antisymmetrization of the interaction matrix element.