Abstract. On the grounds of a Feynman–Kac-type formula for Hamiltonian lattice systems, we derive analytical expressions for the matrix elements of the evolution operator. These expressions are valid at long times when a central limit theorem applies. As a remarkable result, we find that the ground-state energy as well as all the correlation functions in the ground state are determined semi-analytically by solving a simple scalar equation. Furthermore, explicit solutions of this equation are obtained in the noninteracting case.

Received 16 April 2004
Published 12 August 2004