Renormalization of trial wave functionals using the effective potential

Abstract

We introduce a procedure for renormalizing trial variational wave functionals in Fermi and Bose field theories in terms of zero-momentum $n$-point functions. The method relies on a variational calculation of the effective potential. Two model field theories, $\ensuremath{\lambda}{\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ and $g\overline{\ensuremath{\psi}}\ensuremath{\psi}\ensuremath{\varphi}$, are treated explicitly with simple trial wave functionals for the Fermi and Bose vacuums.