Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
a+ is raising operator
a- is lowering operator
a+ and a- are Hermitian conjugates of each other
a- on the ground state to give zero
Will now call a+ and a- creation and annihilation operators as they will create and destroy particles
p + i ωx p - i ωx
a+ = a- = N = a + a-
2ω 2ω
[a+ ,a- ] = 1
Now consider any harmonic oscillator eg violin string, spring etc, possibly with different frequencies
1
H = ℏωN (leaving out the ground state ℏω)
2
Determines the energy needed/released for jump up/down
If many harmonic oscillators can label them with an index i which might go to infinity
ai+ ai- = Ni
All these annihilation operators commute with all the others ie [ai- ,a-j ] = 0 even if i=j
ωi ℏ
H = ∑i ωi ℏNi + Will now call i the occupation number
2
Can label a complete basis of states via the occupation number of the oscillation |n>
So for many oscillators can define, in this basis of states, using ni as the occupation number for
each oscillator
| n1 , n2 , n3 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ni > where i might be infinite
Now particular ai+ and ai- increase or decrease the associated occupation number ie increase/de-
crease the number of particles with that oscillation
For example, a+2 | n1 , n2 , n3 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ni > = n2 + 1 | n1 , n2 +1, n3 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ni >
a+ |n> = n+ 1 n+ 1>
For particles -> wave functions ψ(x), a function of position (forget time for now) and then relate to a
Field
A field is also a function but the connection between ψ(x) and a field is not straightforward
0.39.13
Go back to theory of one particle in a box in one dimension, each ψ1 (x), ψ2 (x) etc has an energy
ψ1 (x), ψ2 (x) etc are energy eigenstates of the particle in the box. The 1,2 etc just refers to different
energy levels. Note: he used unusual notation starting from 1 instead of 0 here
1.0
ψ1(x)
0.5
-0.5
ψ2(x)
-1.0
Consider having a number of Bosons; n1 with energy of ψ1 (x), n2 with energy of ψ2 (x) etc
Couldn’t do this for Fermions as cant have more than one in any state
Because of this parallel try inventing operators that increase the number of bosons with a certain
ψi (x) and operators that decrease the number by creating or annihilating a boson with the appropri-
ate ψi (x)
These are useful definitions with which to explore systems with varying numbers of particles
The number of particles occupying a particular state can be represented by a system of harmonic
oscillators, an oscillator for each single particle state, where the occupation number of the oscilla-
tion is the number of particles occupying that state
The vacuum state is the state which is annihilated by all of the annihilation operators.
Vacuum state has zero occupation number in every state |0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ......0>, any a - on this state
gives zero
Note: ground state and the vacuum state are the same thing
Each wave function ψ1 (x), ψ2 (x) ... ... ....ψi (x) has an energy associated with it; let’s call the energy
of a particle in the first state ω1 and for the second state ω2 etc
Energy of whole system in terms of creation and annihilation operators is the sum of energy all
particles in the first state, all particles in the second state etc etc
E = ℏ(n1 ω1 + n2 ω2 .......... ni ωi )
= ℏ∑i ni ωi where ni is the occupation number if the i th state
= ℏ∑i ωi ai+ ai-
1.09.37
For the moment we are talking about particles that dont interact. If they interacted the energies
wouldn’t just be additive, there would be extra terms relating to the PE for the interactions
Regarding the fact that we often have been leaving out the ground state energy constant; a con-
stant always commutes with everything so adding a constant to the Hamiltonian wont change its
commutation relations
Summary
1. A field is a function of space. It is also an operator ( because it is an observable)
2. Field only depends on one co-ordinate
3. Applies to situations with varying numbers of particles
Quantum field theory can be thought of as a book-keeping device for keeping track of particles that
come and go; though is a little more in that you can measure these fields
Field theory was originally associated with electro-magnetic fields; Maxwell invented field equations
(classical)
Planck realised need to quantise fields. The things that occupy the occupation numbers are quanta
and when we are talking about electro-magnetic fields these are photons
Quantum Field defined as Ψ(x) depends of position, ie an operator for each position
Ψ(x) = ∑i ai- ψi (x) where the ψi (x) are functions like sins and cosines of different wavelengths
if the ψi (x)’s are momentum eigenstates then the a’s are quantum equivalents of Fourier co-effi-
cients
There are a whole set of operators - one for each position in space
A lot of operators because trying to study a system where the number of particles is unbounded
Ψ(x) and Ψ † (x) are not the Hermitian, because a+ and a- aren’t Hermitian - aren’t observables
But if you add Ψ(x) and Ψ † (x) you can make combinations that are Hermitian and can be observed
When Ψ(x) hits the vacuum -> kills it because only has a- operators
Consider quantum mechanics of a single particle (forgetting oscillators for a minute); there are a
complete set of states - the position states |x>
∑x |x><x| = I
The i’s are the one particle states ψ1 (x) etc like we looked at before
1.0
ψ1(x)
0.5
-0.5
ψ2(x)
-1.0
Since ∑i |i><i| = I
∑i |i><i|x> = |x>
So
∑i |i> ψi* (x) = ∑i ψi* (x)|i> = |x> is state of a particle located at x
Ψ † (x) is a function of position (here x) as it needs to know where to put the particle; ‘the quantum
field creates a particle at position x’
Ψ(x) removes a particle from position x or annihilates the state if no particle there
Remember we are talking about bosons. There is a separate quantum field for each species of
boson eg photon, graviton, Higgs, gluon
The vacuum is a state with length 1, it is not zero; when hit with an annihilation operator it literally
goes to zero and has zero length. Doesn’t describe anything physical
If add vacuum state to a state with one particle state then get a state with eg a 50% probability of
having a particle and a 50% probability of not having a particle
Any operator that acts on the zero vector in the vector space just gives back the zero vector
Note: x and y are the same type of particle as both created by the same Ψ
This is only interesting in the context of varying numbers of particles; for fixed number of particles
would not use this.