New and Practical Formulation for Overlaps of Bogoliubov Vacua

In this Letter, we present a new expression for the overlaps of wave functions in Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov based theories. Starting from the Pfaffian formula by Bertsch et al. [1], an exact and computationally stable formula for overlaps is derived. We illustrate the convenience of this new formulation with a numerical application in the context of the particle-number projection method. This new formula allows for substantially increased precision and versatility in chemical, atomic, and nuclear physics applications, particularly for methods dealing with superfluidity, symmetry restoration, and uses of nonorthogonal many-body basis states.