Canonical quantization of scalar fields

based on S-3

Hamiltonian for free nonrelativistic particles:

Furier transform:
a(x) =

we get:

d3 p
ipx
e
a
(p) !
3/2
(2)
d3 x

(2)3

eipx = 3 (p)

can go back to x using:

!

d3 p ipx
3
e
=

(x)
3
(2)
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Canonical quantization of scalar fields

(Anti)commutation relations:

[A, B] = AB BA

Vacuum is annihilated by

is a state of momentum
is eigenstate of

, eigenstate of

with

with energy eigenvalue:

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Relativistic generalization
Hamiltonian for free relativistic particles:

spin zero, but can be either bosons or fermions

Is this theory Lorentz invariant?
Lets prove it from a different direction, direction that we will use for
any quantum field theory from now:
start from a Lorentz invariant lagrangian or action
derive equation of motion (for scalar fields it is K.-G. equation)
find solutions of equation of motion
show the Hamiltonian is the same as the one above
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A theory is described by an action:

where

is the lagrangian.

Equations of motion should be local, and so

where

is the lagrangian density.

Thus:
is Lorentz invariant:
For the action to be invariant we need:
the lagrangian density must be a Lorentz scalar!
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Any polynomial of a scalar field is a Lorentz scalar and so are products of

derivatives with all indices contracted.

Lets consider:

arbitrary constant
! = 1, c = 1

and lets find the equation of motion, Euler-Lagrange equation:

(we find eq. of motion from variation of an action: making an infinitesimal

variation
in
and requiring the variation of the action to vanish)

integration by parts,
and (x) = 0 at
infinity in any direction
(including time)

is arbitrary function of x and so the equation of motion is

Klein-Gordon equation
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Solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation:

one classical solution is a plane wave:
is arbitrary real wave vector and
The general classical solution of K-G equation:

where
and
are arbitrary functions of , and
is a function of |k| (introduced for later convenience)
if we tried to interpret
as a quantum wave function, the second term
would represent contributions with negative energy to the wave function!
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real solutions:
k k

thus we get:

(such a

k is said to be on the mass shell)

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Finally lets choose

so that

is Lorentz invariant:

manifestly invariant under orthochronous Lorentz transformations

on the other hand

sum over zeros of g, in our case the only zero is k 0 =

for any
the differential
it is convenient to take
the Lorentz invariant differential is:

is Lorentz invariant
for which

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Finally we have a real classical solution of the K.-G. equation:

where again:
For later use we can express

where

,
in terms of

and we will call

Note,

is time independent.
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Constructing the hamiltonian:

Recall, in classical mechanics, starting with lagrangian
as a function
of coordinates
and their time derivatives
we define conjugate
momenta
and the hamiltonian is then given as:

In field theory:

hamiltonian density

and the hamiltonian is given as:

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In our case:

Inserting

we get:

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d3 x ipx
e
= 3 (p)
3
(2)

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