7.

5 Generalized Susceptibility 361

is that with a further increase of U , the amplitude of the qo order in-

creases towards saturation. There are, however, cases when at a higher
U , a first-order transition to a different kind of fully developed order is
taking place.
In order to make use of (7.47), we should know x(O)(q). X(O)(q)
depends on the details of the band structure and generally, it has to
be determined by numerical integration. There are, however, important
special cases where analytical results are available.
For free electrons in three-dimension, x(O)(q)is the well-known Lind-
hard function [32] which has its maximum at q = 0. Thus the leading
(magnetic) instability of the three-dimensional electron gas would be17
the onset of ferromagnetism at U E F . In one-dimension, x(O)(q)has
N

a logarithmic divergence at the Fermi diameter q = 2kF (see Problem

7.4). We may want to conclude that a quasi-one-dimensionalsubstance
should have a q = 2kF spin density wave ground state, except that the
dielectric susceptibility diverges at the same q, so we have to worry about
the competition between spin density wave, and charge density wave,
types of ordering. The physics of quasi-one-dimensionalsubstances is an
interesting, and highly developed, branch of solid state physics, which
we cannot discuss here (see I1381 for details).
In our model studies, an important role is played by the D-dimen-
sional cubic lattices which have the tight binding dispersion relation
D
c(k) = - 2 t C c o s k i . (7.48)
i=l
Let us observe that these satisfy the perfect nesting condition
c(k + Q) = --E(k) for all k (7.49)
where Q = ( T ,T ,. . . ,T ) is the so-called spanning vector (we took the
lattice constant a = 1). We have met Q as the wavevector of the two-
sublattice antiferromagnetic order (7.4). At half-filling EF = 0, and at
171t has to be mentioned at once that further studies show that this mean field
prediction is false. The free-electron dispersion might be used at the bottom of a
band, i.e., at low fillings. However, there are general arguments to rule out ferro-
magnetism in a low-density electron system (see Ch. 8). At larger band fillings,
the response is determined by lattice effects. We will associate ferromagnetism with
marked deviations from the free-electron behaviour.