The many-body problem is usually approached from one of two perspectives: the first originates from an action and is based on Feynman diagrams, the second is centered around a Hamiltonian and deals with quantum states and operators. The connection between results obtained in either way is made through spectral (or Lehmann) representations, well known for two-point correlation functions. Here, we complete this picture by deriving generalized spectral representations for multipoint correlation functions that apply in all of the commonly used many-body frameworks: the imaginary-frequency Mastubara and the real-frequency zero-temperature and Keldysh formalisms. Our approach is based on separating spectral from time-ordering properties and thereby elucidates the relation between the three formalisms. The spectral representations of multipoint correlation functions consist of partial spectral functions and convolution kernels. The former are formalism independent but system specific; the latter are system independent but formalism specific. Using a numerical renormalization group (NRG) method described in an accompanying paper, we present numerical results for selected quantum impurity models. We focus on the four-point vertex (effective interaction) obtained for the single-impurity Anderson model and for the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) solution of the one-band Hubbard model. In the Matsubara formalism, we analyze the evolution of the vertex down to very low temperatures and describe the crossover from strongly interacting particles to weakly interacting quasiparticles. In the Keldysh formalism, we first benchmark our results at weak and infinitely strong interaction and then reveal the rich real-frequency structure of the DMFT vertex in the coexistence regime of a metallic and insulating solution.
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