 Solution

The three-point density correlation of an ideal quantum gas follows first for a number-conserving Gaussian quantum state. There are six pairings, one for each permutation of three annihilation operators. The identity gives the product of densities; each transposition has sign $ϵ$; both three-cycles have positive sign. ThusThe last two terms are complex conjugates. They equal $2\mathrm{Re}(g_{12}{g}_{23}{g}_{31})$, not an additional signed pair term. This is the permanent of a matrix $(g_{ij})$ for bosons and its determinant for fermions. Wick's theorem supplies the six terms only with the state assumption stated in part (a).

For completeness an exact bosonic Fock-state alternative can be given without that assumption. Let $\mathbf{\ell }$ be a mode-occupation decrement with ${\sum }_{\alpha }{\ell }_{\alpha }=3$. Define $A_{\mathbf{\ell }}(1,2,3)$ as the sum of ${\prod }_{j=1}^3{\phi }_{{\alpha }_j}({\mathbf{r}}_j)$ over all distinct ordered triples having these mode multiplicities. Acting three annihilation fields on the number state leaves mutually orthogonal states for different $\mathbf{\ell }$. ThereforeHere $N^{\underline{\ell }}=N!/(N-\ell )!$, with zero when $\ell >N$. This expression includes repeated-mode occupation corrections absent from the Gaussian permanent; for a single mode it reduces to $N(N-1)(N-2){\prod }_j|\phi ({\mathbf{r}}_j){|}^2$.