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International Journal of Quantum Chemistry

Coherent state representation for fermions

Charles M. Bowden

Published Jun 18, 2009• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Fermion-like coherent states are obtained as projections from the Glauber coherent states for a boson field, and the two sets of states have an interesting correspondence. It is shown that because of the correspondence the equation of motion of the density operator for a fermion interacting with a radiation field maps into a classical-like transport equation in a hypothetical boson phase space. Besides being useful in the description of systems of fermions involved in cooperative phenomena, it is shown that the use of the continuous basis offers some unique advantages even for systems which are essentially Markovian. As an illustration, the method is applied to the description of the time evolution of a two-level atom interacting with a blackbody radiation field.

DOI
10.1002/qua.560060615

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A New Boson Realization of the Two-Level Pairing Model in a Many-Fermion System and Its Classical Counterpart: -- The Role of the su(2) su(1,1)-Coherent State in the Schwinger Boson Representation for the su(2) su(2)-Algebra --

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A new method for describing the two-level pairing model in a many-fermion system is presented. The basic idea comes from the Schwinger boson representation for the su(2) ⊗ su(2)-algebra, in which four kinds of boson operators govern the dynamics. It is well known that in the original fermion space, it is almost impossible to introduce any trial state for the variation except the BCS state in the framework of the mean field approximation. However, in the Schwinger boson representation, various trial states can be defined on the condition that the mean field approximation is useful. In these states, the su(2) ⊗ su(1,1)-coherent state is mainly discussed in this paper.

Progress of Theoretical Physics•Apr 1, 2006•0 citations
Fermion-like coherent states are obtained as projections from the Glauber coherent states for a boson field, and the two sets of states have an interesting correspondence. It is shown that because of the correspondence the equation of motion of the density operator for a fermion interacting with a radiation field maps into a classical-like transport equation in a hypothetical boson phase space. Besides being useful in the description of systems of fermions involved in cooperative phenomena, it is shown that the use of the continuous basis offers some unique advantages even for systems which are essentially Markovian. As an illustration, the method is applied to the description of the time evolution of a two-level atom interacting with a blackbody radiation field.
We introduce a positive phase-space representation for fermions, using the most general possible multimode Gaussian operator basis. The representation generalizes previous bosonic quantum phase-space methods to Fermi systems. We derive equivalences between quantum and stochastic moments, as well as operator correspondences that map quantum operator evolution onto stochastic processes in phase space. The representation thus enables first-principles quantum dynamical or equilibrium calculations in many-body Fermi systems. Potential applications are to strongly interacting and correlated Fermi gases, including coherent behavior in open systems and nanostructures described by master equations. Examples of an ideal gas and the Hubbard model are given, as well as a generic open system, in order to illustrate these ideas.
A fermionic analog of a parametric amplifier is used to describe the joint quantum state of the two interacting fermionic modes. Based on a two-mode generalization of the time-dependent density operator, time evolution of the fermionic density operator is determined in terms of its two-mode Wigner and PPP function. It is shown that the equation of motion of the Wigner function corresponds to a fermionic analog of Liouville's equation. The equilibrium density operator for fermionic fields developed by Cahill and Glauber is thus extended to a dynamical context to show that the mathematical structures of both the correlation functions and the weight factors closely resemble their bosonic counterpart. It has been shown that the fermionic correlation functions are marked by a characteristic upper bound due to Fermi statistics, which can be verified in the matter wave counterpart of photon down-conversion experiments.
In a first part we give a brief presentation of general Fock space setting to describe quantum field theory. Bosons are quantum particles with integer spin and have symmetric wave functions; Fermions are quantum particles with half-integer spin and are represented by anti-symmetric wave functions. The functional setting is given by a symmetric or anti-symmetric tensor product of Hilbert spaces. We describe these spaces and transformations between these spaces. We shall follow the references [23, 42]. Coherent states are defined by translating the vacuum states with the Weyl operators. This is easily done here for bosons. We shall see in the next chapter how to deal with fermions. In a second part we give an interesting application of bosonic coherent states to the study of the classical limit as ℏ↘0\hbar \searrow 0ℏ↘0 of non-relativistic boson systems with two body interaction in the neighborhood of a solution of the classical system (here the Hartree equation). The classical limit corresponds here to the mean-field limit as the number of particles goes to infinity. As we have done for finite systems, we use here Hepp’s method, which is a linearization procedure of the quantum Hamiltonian around the classical field. The fluctuations around this solution are controlled by a purely quadratic Hamiltonian. In a series of several important papers [114–116] Ginibre and Velo have proven an asymptotic expansion and remainder estimates for these quantum fluctuations. Finally, following the paper [225] one can show that, in the limit ℏ→0\hbar \rightarrow 0ℏ→0, the marginal distribution of the time-evolved coherent states tends in trace-norm to the projector onto the solution of the classical fields equation (Hartree equation) with a uniform remainder estimates in time.
Methods are developed for discussing the photon statistics of arbitrary fields in fully quantum-mechanical terms. In order to keep the classical limit of quantum electrodynamics plainly in view, extensive use is made of the coherent states of the field. These states, which reduce the field correlation functions to factorized forms, are shown to offer a convenient basis for the description of fields of all types. Although they are not orthogonal to one another, the coherent states form a complete set. It is shown that any quantum state of the field may be expanded in terms of them in a unique way. Expansions are also developed for arbitrary operators in terms of products of the coherent state vectors. These expansions are discussed as a general method of representing the density operator for the field. A particular form is exhibited for the density operator which makes it possible to carry out many quantum-mechanical calculations by methods resembling those of classical theory. This representation permits clear insights into the essential distinction between the quantum and classical descriptions of the field. It leads, in addition, to a simple formulation of a superposition law for photon fields. Detailed discussions are given of the incoherent fields which are generated by superposing the outputs of many stationary sources. These fields are all shown to have intimately related properties, some of which have been known for the particular case of blackbody radiation.
As we have seen in the previous chapters, there are quantum fluctuations associated with the states corresponding to classically welldefined electromagnetic fields. The general description of fluctuation phenomena requires the density operator. However, it is possible to give an alternative but equivalent description in terms of distribution functions. In the present chapter, we extend our treatment of quantum statistical phenomena by developing the theory of quasi-classical distributions. This is of interest for several reasons. First of all, the extension of the quantum theory of radiation to involve nonquantum stochastic effects such as thermal fluctuations is needed. This is an important ingredient in the theory of partial coherence. Furthermore, the interface between classical and quantum physics is elucidated by the use of such distributions. The arch type example being the Wigner distribution. In this chapter, we introduce various distribution functions. These include the coherent state representation or the Glauber–Sudarshan Prepresentation. The P -representation is used to evaluate the normally ordered correlation functions of the field operators. As we shall see in the next chapter, the P -representation forms a correspondence between the quantum and the classical coherence theory. This distribution function does not have all of the properties of the classical distribution functions for certain states of the field, e.g., it can be negative. We also discuss the so-called Q -representation associated with the antinormally ordered correlation functions. Other distribution functions and their properties are also presented.
A new method for describing the two-level pairing model in a many-fermion system is presented. The basic idea comes from the Schwinger boson representation for the su(2) ⊗ su(2)-algebra, in which four kinds of boson operators govern the dynamics. It is well known that in the original fermion space, it is almost impossible to introduce any trial state for the variation except the BCS state in the framework of the mean field approximation. However, in the Schwinger boson representation, various trial states can be defined on the condition that the mean field approximation is useful. In these states, the su(2) ⊗ su(1,1)-coherent state is mainly discussed in this paper.