Gap generation in the BCS model with finite range temporal interaction

Abstract. In the [BCS] paper the theory of superconductivity was developed for the BCS model, in which the (instantaneous) interaction is only between fermions of opposite momentum and spin. Such model was analyzed by variational methods, finding that a superconducting behavior is energetically favorable. Subsequently it was claimed that in the thermodynamic limit the BCS model is equivalent to the (exactly solvable) quadratic mean field BCS model; a rigorous proof of this claim is however still lacking. In this paper we consider the BCS model with a finite range temporal interaction, and we prove rigorously its equivalence with the mean field BCS model in the thermodinamic limit if the range is long enough, by a (uniformly convergent) perturbation expansion about mean field theory.