Particle number renormalization in nearly half-filled Mott Hubbard superconductors

The effects of the Gutzwiller projection on a BCS wave function with varying particle number are considered. We show that a fugacity factor has to be introduced in these wave functions when they are Gutzwiller projected, and derive an expression for this factor within the Gutzwiller approximation. We examine the effects of the projection operator on BCS wave functions by calculating the average number of particles before and after projection. We also calculate particle number fluctuations in a projected BCS state. Finally, we point out the differences between projecting BCS wave functions in the micro- and grand-canonical schemes, and discuss the relevance of our results for variational Monte Carlo studies.