Convergence of many-body truncations in the in-medium similarity renormalization group

Abstract

The in-medium similarity renormalization group (IMSRG) is a leading \textit{ab initio} method for describing atomic nuclei. Most applications truncate the flowing operators at the normal-ordered two-body level, neglecting induced higher-body terms. Convergence with increasing operator rank remains poorly understood, particularly in strongly correlated systems. We systematically assess the many-body truncation hierarchy in the single-reference and multi-reference IMSRG, retaining normal-ordered operators through the four-body and three-body levels, respectively. Using an exactly solvable pairing-plus-particle-hole model, we quantify successive higher-body corrections over a broad range of interaction strengths, spanning weakly to strongly correlated regimes. The multi-reference formulation exhibits faster and more robust convergence than its single-reference counterpart, with the advantage becoming most pronounced at strong coupling. In this regime, higher-rank irreducible density matrices play an essential role in achieving convergence of the many-body expansion.