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 \(\hbar \searrow 0\) 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 \(\hbar \rightarrow 0\), 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.
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 (\hbar \searrow 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 (\hbar \rightarrow 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.
“Bosonization” refers to the possibility of describing a theory of relativistic Dirac fermions obeying standard anticommutation rules by a boson field theory. While this may be possible in all dimensions, it has so far proved most useful in d = 1, where the bosonic version of the given fermionic theory is local and simple, and often simpler than the Fermi theory. This chapter should be viewed as a stepping stone toward a more thorough approach, for which references are given at the end. In this chapter I will set up the bosonization machine, explaining its basic logic and the dictionary for transcribing a fermionic theory to a bosonic theory. The next chapter will be devoted to applications. To my knowledge, bosonization, as described here, was first carried out by Lieb and Mattis [1] in their exact solution of the Luttinger model [2]. Later, Luther and Peschel [3] showed how to use it to find asymptotic (low momentum and energy) correlation functions for more generic interacting Fermi systems. It was independently discovered in particle physics by Coleman [4], and further developed by Mandelstam [5]. Much of what I know and use is inspired by the work of Luther and Peschel. Preamble Before getting into any details, I would first like to answer two questions. First, if bosonization applies only to relativistic Dirac fermions, why is it of any interest to condensed matter theory where relativity is not essential? Second, what is the magic by which bosonization helps us tame interacting field theories? As for the first question, there are two ways in which Dirac fermions enter condensed matter physics. The first is in the study of two-dimensional Ising models, where we have already encountered them. Recall that if we use the transfer matrix approach and convert the classical problem on an N × N lattice to a quantum problem in one dimension we end up with a 2 N -dimensional Hilbert space, with a Pauli matrix at each of N sites. The two dimensions at each site represent the twofold choice of values open to the Ising spins. Consider now a spinless fermion degree of freedom at each site. Here too we have two choices: the fermion state is occupied or empty.
In this chapter, we derived some elements of quantum mechanics, which are essential for the further development of our theory: the momentum of a system of Fermions in the second quantization, the coordinate and momentum of a harmonic oscillator as a unique operator at two different moments of time, Boson and Fermion operator algebra, coherent states, the electron-field interaction, the quantization of the electromagnetic field, Boson and Fermion distributions, and densities of states in a degenerate, or a non-degenerate system of Fermions. Our starting point is the wave nature of a quantum particle, the Hamiltonian equations were obtained as group velocities in the two conjugate spaces of the wave, of the coordinates and of the momentum. In this way, the Schr¨odinger equation and the electron-field potential of interaction are obtained from quantum equations generated by the particle wave function.
In this Chapter we study the Weyl–Heisenberg group in the Schrödinger representation in arbitrary dimension n. One shows that it operates in the Hilbert space of quantum states (and on quantum operators) as a phase-space translation. Then applying it to a Schwartz class state of arbitrary profile we get a set of generalized coherent states. When we apply the Weyl–Heisenberg translation operator to the ground state of the n-dimensional Harmonic Oscillator, one gets the standard coherent states introduced by Schrödinger [233] (Naturwissenshaften 14:664–666, 1926) in the early days of quantum mechanics (1926). Later the coherent states have been extensively studied by Glauber [118, 119] (Phys. Rev. 131:2766–2788, 1963; Phys. Rev. 130:2529–2539, 1963) for the purpose of quantum optics and it seems that their name comes back to this work. The standard coherent states have been generalized by Perelomov [208] (Generalised Coherent States and Their Applications, 1986) to more general Lie groups than the Weyl–Heisenberg group. We also introduce the usual creation and annihilation operators in dimension n which are very convenient for the study of coherent states. We show that coherent states constitute a non-orthogonal over-complete system which yields a resolution of the identity operator in the Hilbert space and which allows a computation of the Hilbert–Schmidt norm and of the trace of respectively Hilbert–Schmidt class and trace-class operators. We study their time-evolution for the quantum Harmonic Oscillator hamiltonian and show that a time evolved coherent state located around phase-space point z is up to a phase a coherent state located around the phase-space point zt, where zt is the phase-space point of the classical flow governed by the Harmonic Oscillator. This property was described by Schrödinger as the non-spreading of the time evolution of coherent states under the quantum Harmonic Oscillator dynamics. We also show how to go from the Schrödinger to the Fock–Bargmann representation using the standard coherent states.
In this final chapter we discuss composite systems in Quantum Mechanics. First, we lay out the necessary conditions that the state space of a composite system must satisfy by considering the trivial case of two juxtaposed systems. Then we point out the features that the interesting case of a composite system, whose parts interact with each other, must have. We then move to demonstrate how such a system can be naturally described (quantized) by employing tensor product spaces. The definition and the most relevant properties of tensor product spaces are introduced. Then the meaning of “interactions” in quantum mechanics is explored and the most nontrivial aspects of correlation and entanglement are discussed. Finally, in the last section, we introduce systems of identical particles. We describe how to represent the state space of such systems in terms of one-particle states, number operators and occupation number representations. Classification of identical particles into Bosons and Fermions is explained. Finally, introducing symmetric and antisymmetric states, the traditional quantization scheme using the symmetrization postulate is described. The permutation operator is introduced which is the main tool for dealing with identical particle systems in this language. We wind up by indicating how exchange degeneracy is removed which embodies the signature of indistinguishability.
We consider a mean-field model to describe the dynamics of [Formula: see text] bosons of species one and [Formula: see text] bosons of species two in the limit as [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] go to infinity. We embed this model into Fock space and use it to describe the time evolution of coherent states which represent two-component condensates. Following this approach, we obtain a microscopic quantum description for the dynamics of such systems, determined by the Schrödinger equation. Associated to the solution to the Schrödinger equation, we have a reduced density operator for one particle in the first component of the condensate and one particle in the second component. In this paper, we estimate the difference between this operator and the projection onto the tensor product of two functions that are solutions of a system of equations of Hartree type. Our results show that this difference goes to zero as [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] go to infinity.
This chapter presents an analogous formalism which is developed for systems composed of many identical particles. Another extremely useful basis of the Fock space is the basis of coherent states which is analogous to the basis of position eigenstates in quantum mechanics. A crucial property of the coherent states is their overcompleteness in the Fock space, that is, the fact that any vector of the Fock space can be expanded in terms of coherent states. Boson coherent states are the physical states which emerge naturally when taking the classical limit of quantum mechanics or of a quantum field theory. In contrast, Fermion coherent states are not contained in the Fermion Fock space, they are not physically observable, and there are no classical fields of Fermions. In the subsequent development, this physical difference will give rise to some significant differences in the treatment of Bosons and Fermions.