Paper 337 2 a i Solution 2026-09-24
In the long-wavelength description of an antiferromagnet, is the antiferromagnetic spin wave velocity and controls the stiffness or strength of quantum fluctuations. The field is an auxiliary Lagrange multiplier enforcing the fixed-length constraint on the order parameter. At the translation-invariant saddle, shifts every propagator denominator and is the excitation gap, which explains the name gap equation.
The Large-N expansion makes fluctuations of the auxiliary field relatively small. Its leading saddle-point condition is then self-consistent and becomes the displayed gap equation.