Review of the k-Body Embedded Ensembles of Gaussian Random Matrices

Abstract

The embedded ensembles were introduced by Mon and French as physically more plausible stochastic models of many--body systems governed by one--and two--body interactions than provided by standard random--matrix theory. We review several approaches aimed at determining the spectral density, the spectral fluctuation properties, and the ergodic properties of these ensembles: moments methods, numerical simulations, the replica trick, the eigenvector decomposition of the matrix of second moments and supersymmetry, the binary correlation approximation, and the study of correlations between matrix elements.

Final version. 29 pages, 4 ps figures, uses iopart.sty