Single-particle Green's functions, density response functions and other correlation functions are calculated in many different ways in the literature on Bose-condensed gases. An in-depth comparison and classification of different approaches was first given in the classic paper by Hohenberg and Martin (1965), with an emphasis on the various exact identities (conservation laws) that are satisfied. A key feature to be included in any theory is that a Bose broken symmetry leads to a hybridization of the single-particle excitations and the collective density fluctuations in such a way that the two excitation spectra become identical. This key feature is demonstrated in Chapter 5 of Griffin (1993).

How to relate and assess various approximations for correlation functions in a Bose superfluid has been a topic of continual interest (and some controversy) since the late 1950s. These questions were largely resolved by the early 1960s at a conceptual level but the detailed applications of the theory were limited to dilute Bose-condensed gases at T = 0. Since it was difficult to relate the theory to the properties of superfluid. He at a quantitative level, this formalism based on a Bose broken symmetry was of little interest to experimentalists. The creation of superfluid Bose condensed gases in 1995 changed all this and has given new life to the many body theory of dilute weakly interacting Bose condensed gases.

Various approximations for the Beliaev single-particle self-energies Σαβ were derived in Sections 4.3 and 4.4. The discussion in Chapter 4 was somewhat abstract.