Lecture XIV

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Lecture XIV: Coherent States

Discuss element of PI construction which demands generalisation Generalisation of FPI to many-body systems problematic due to particle indistinguishability and statistics Can second quantisation help? automatically respects particle statistics Require complete basis on the Fock space to construct PI Such eigenstates exist and are known as Coherent States reference: Negele and Orland Coherent States (Bosons)
What are eigenstates of Fock space operators: ai and a i s.t. [ai , aj ] = ij ?

Being a state of the Fock space, an eigenstate | can be expanded as | =

n2 n1 (a (a 2) 1) |0 Cn1 ,n2 , n n 1 2 ,

n1 ,n2

N.B. notation |0 for vacuum state!

(i) a i | = i | ? in fact, eigenstate of ai can not exist: if the minimum occupation of | is n0 , the minimum of a i | is n0 + 1

(ii) ai | = i | ? can exist and given by: | exp[

i a i ]|0 N.B. {i }

Proof: since ai commutes with all a j for j = i focus on one element i a exp(a )|0 = [a, exp(a )]|0 =

=
n=0

n [a, (a )n ]|0 = n!

n=1

nn n1 (a ) |0 = exp(a )|0 n!

a(a )n = aa (a )n1 = (1 + a a)(a )n1 = (a )n1 + a a(a )n1 = n(a )n1 + (a )n a i.e. | is eigenstate of all ai with eigenvalue i known as Bosonic coherent state Properties of coherent state: Hermitian conjugation: i : |a i = | i i is complex conjugate of i

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By direct application of i (and operator commutativity): i : Overlap: with | = (| ) = 0|e | = 0| e

P i i ai

a i | = i |

P i i ai

| = e

P i i i

0| = exp

i i
i

i.e. states are not orthogonal! operators not Hermitian Norm: | = exp i i
i

Completeness resolution of id. (for proof see notes) idi P d e i i i | | = 1F i di = dRe i dIm i where d Coherent States (Fermions) Following bosonic case, seek state | s.t. ai | = i | , = {i } But anticommutativity [ai , aj ]+ = 0 (i = j ) implies eigenvalues i anticommute!! i j = j i i can not be ordinary numbers in fact, they obey... Grassmann Algebra In addition to anticommutativity, dening properties:
2 (i) i = 0 (cf. fermions) but note: these are not operators, i.e. [i , i ]+ = 1

(ii) Elements i can be added to and multiplied by ordinary complex numbers c + ci i + cj j , ci , cj C

(iii) Grassmann numbers anticommute with fermionic creation/annihilation operators [i , aj ]+ = 0 Calculus of Grassmann variables: (iv) Dierentiation: i j = ij N.B. ordering i j i = j i i = j for i = j
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(v) Integration:

di = 0,

di i = 1 i.e. dierentiation and integration have the same eect!!

Gaussian integration:
a d d e = d d e
T A

d d (1 a ) = a (exercise)

d = a

= detA

cf. ordinary complex variables Functions of Grassmann variables: Taylor expansion terminates at low order since 2 = 0, e.g. F ( ) = F (0) + F (0) Using rules dF ( ) = d [F (0) + F (0)] = F (0) F [ ]

i.e. dierentiation and integration have same eect on F [ ]! Usually, one has a function of many variables F [ ], say = {1 , N }

F ( ) =
n=0

1 n F (0) j i n! i j but series must terminate at n = N

with these preliminaries we are in a position to introduce the Fermionic coherent state: | = exp[ Proof (cf. bosonic case) a exp(a )|0 = a(1 a )|0 = aa |0 = |0 = exp(a )|0 Other dening properties mirror bosonic CS problem set Dierences: (i) Adjoint: | = 0|e
P
i

i a i ]|0 i.e. = {i }

ai i

0| e

i ai

but N.B. i not related to i ! N.B. no s

(ii) Gaussian integration: Completeness relation

d d e =1

d i di e
i

i i

| | = 1F

Lecture Notes

October 2005