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A quartet BCS-like theory

We introduce a BCS-like theory for the quartet correlations induced by the isovector pairing interaction. It is based on a coherent state of BCS type and, unlike usual mean field approaches, it displays a vanishing pair anomalous density $\langle c^\dagger c^\dagger\rangle =0$. We find good agreement between our theory and the exact results. We discuss how the pairing and quarteting correlations share some similar qualitative features within the BCS approach. However, there is no sharp quarteting phase transition. We also present various ways in which our theory may be further developed.