Many-body position operator in lattice fermionic systems with periodic boundary conditions

A total position operator X in the position representation is derived for lattice fermionic systems with periodic boundary conditions. The operator is shown to be Hermitian, the generator of translations in momentum space, and its time derivative is shown to correspond to the total current operator in a periodic system. The operator is such that its moments can be calculated up to any order. To demonstrate its utility finite size scaling is applied to the Brinkman-Rice transition as well as to metallic and insulating Gutzwiller wavefunctions. (fast track communication)