Physics 502, Final Exam: 3:30-6:30 Wednesday, April 22

Useful Formulas
Density of free electron gas (summed over both spin components) expressed in terms of the Fermi wave-vector:
0 = kF3 /(3 2 ).

(1)

Equal time fermion correlation function for ground state of jellium:

<

0 | (~r) (0)|0

>=

1
d3 k i~k~r
e
=
[sin kF r kF r cos kF r].
(2)3
2 2 r3

(2)

(Here the k-integral is restricted to k < kF .)

Period of oscillations in density of states for electrons in a magnetic field of magnitude B:

1
2e

.
=
B
hcAex

(3)

Here Aex is the area in k-space of an extremal orbit on the Fermi surface, perpendicular to the field direction.
Beginning of Exam
1a) Give rough estimates in any reasonable units of the following quantities in a metal:
i) Fermi wave-vector
ii) Band width
iii) distance between neighbouring ions
iv) distance an electron travels before having a collision at room temperature.
v) Ratio of Boltzmanns constant times temperature to band width for a metal at room temperature.
b) What are the rules of semi-classical dynamics for electrons in a metal?
2) Consider a metal in the free electron approximation (or equivalently using the Hartree-Fock approximation
to the jellium model).
a) Calculate:
g (~r1 ~r2 ) < 0 |
(~r1 )
(~r2 )|0 > .

(4)

(~r) (~r) (~r)

(5)

Here |0 > is the ground state and

is the number density operator for electrons of spin = or . g (~r1 ~r2 ) is proportional to the probability that
there is an electron of spin up at ~r1 and another one of spin down at ~r2 . You may express your answer in terms of
the Fermi wave-vector, kF and the average density, (summed over both spin components) 0 .
b) In the same approximation also calculate:
g (~r1 ~r2 ) < 0 |
(~r1 )
(~r2 )|0 >

(6)

proportional to the probability that there is an electron of spin up at ~r1 and another one of spin up at ~r2 .
You do not need to evaluate these functions at ~r1 = ~r2 but determine them for all other values of |~r1 ~r2 |. In one
case you should find what is known as the Fermi hole or exchange hole; this is a depletion of the probability, g,
when ~r1 is close to ~r2 .
3) Consider an electron band which is free-electron like for motion in the x-y plane but of tight-binding form
for hopping between planes:
h2 2
(~k) =
(k + ky2 ) 2t cos(kz a)
2m x

(7)

2
for a positive constant t.
a) For a large magnetic field applied in the z-direction, what periods in 1/B do you expect to appear in the de
Haas-van Alphen oscillations? You may express your answer in terms of F and t (as well as m and h).
b) Assuming the electron density is large enough and t is small enough that F 2t > 0, express F in terms of the
electron density, t, m, a and h.
4) Consider a tri-atomic molecule made from 3 identical atoms with an equilateral triangle shape. Suppose
that there are 2 electrons in the molecule and that there is only 1 orbital available to them on each atom. Let c i,
create an electron of spin in the orbital centred on atom i. Assume these orbitals to be orthogonal on different
atoms. Assume that the system is described by a tight-binding Hamiltonian:
H=

3
X
i=1

[t

2i ].
(ci, ci+1, + ci+1, ci, ) + U n

(8)

i is the total number operator on site i:

Assume t > 0. Here I have defined, for convenience, c4, c1, and n
n
i

ci, ci, .

(9)

Assume that the ground state is invariant under 2/3 spatial rotations which interchange the 3 sites and is a spin
singlet. (This assumption is reasonable since the Hamiltonian has this spatial rotation symmetry as well as spin
rotation symmetry.) A two-electron basis state with this symmetry is:
3
1 X X
ci, ci+1, |0 > .
|1 >
6 i=1 ,=,

(10)

Here |0 > is the vacuum state and is the 2 2 antisymmetric matrix with 12 = 1. (Recall that c4, c1, .)
a) Find another normalized two-electron basis state with this symmetry, | 2 >, which is orthogonal to |1 >.
b) Write the Hamiltonian as a 2 2 matrix when acting on this basis (|1 >, |2 >).
c) Diagonalize the matrix found in part b) to determine the ground state wave-function (expressed as a linear
combination of |1 > and |2 >) and energy.
SUGGESTION: This is not required to answer the question, but a good way to check your answer to b) and
c) is to take the limit U = 0 and see if it agrees with the result of filling the lowest energy single-particle state in this
non-interacting model. You could also check the energy of the second (excited) state given by the matrix found in b).
Note that this can be thought of as a one-dimensional tight-binding model with periodic boundary conditions
on a very short ring of 3 sites.