Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/iii/paper-344/1/d/solution

Choose the translationally invariant Gaussian variational approximation
The superscript means that one member of each pair is included; this is necessary because a real field obeys . The constrained zero mode is omitted.
For each independent complex mode,
Consequently,
Substitution into the Gibbs--Bogoliubov--Feynman inequality gives
which is the required upper bound.

New to topics? Read the docs here!