Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

CRC Press eBooks

Second Quantization

Gordon Baym

Published Mar 5, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This chapter describes a very elegant way of accounting for the symmetry of the states and the operators of systems of many identical particles and illustrates its use in a few simple calculations. It presents operators in identical particle systems that remove particles from and add particles to the system. This formal similarity is the reason the creation and annihilation operator formalism is called second quantization; one-particle wave functions appear to have become operators which create and annihilate particles, while single particle expectation values appear to have become operators for physical quantities. The Hanbury-Brown and Twiss experiment provides a simple way of observing this tendency of bosons to clump together. Basically, the experiment measures the probability of observing two photons simultaneously at different points in a beam of incoherent light. The actual measuring apparatus uses a half silvered mirror, to split the beam into some identical beams; this avoids the problem of one detector casting a shadow on the other.

DOI
10.1201/9780429499265-19

Related papers

Second quantization

Yuli V. Nazarov, Jeroen Danon

In this chapter we describe a technique to deal with identical particles that is called second quantization . Despite being a technique, second quantization helps a lot in understanding physics. One can learn and endlessly repeat newspaper-style statements particles are fields , fields are particles without grasping their meaning. Second quantization brings these concepts to an operational level. Since the procedure of second quantization is slightly different for fermions and bosons, we have to treat the two cases separately. We start with considering a system of identical bosons, and introduce creation and annihilation operators (CAPs) that change the number of particles in a given many-particle state, thereby connecting different states in Fock space. We show how to express occupation numbers in terms of CAPs, and then get to the heart of the second quantization: the commutation relations for the bosonic CAPs. As a next step, we construct field operators out of the CAPs and spend quite some time (and energy) presenting the physics of the particles in terms of these field operators. Only afterward, do we explain why all this activity has been called second quantization. In Section 3.4 we then present the same procedure for fermions, and we mainly focus on what is different as compared to bosons. The formalism of second quantization is summarized in Table 3.1.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Jan 3, 2013•0 citations

Identical particles

Efstratios Manousakis

Abstract This chapter discusses the case of a many-body system of identical particles. It considers the consequencies of the symmetry of the Hamiltonian under particle permutations in this case. It discusses how to build many-body Boson and Fermion states. It then introduces the formalism of so-called second quantization, which is usefu, in the case of identical particles. It also expresses the many-body Hamiltonian in terms of creation and annihilation operators.

•Nov 1, 2015•0 citations

Second quantization in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics

Donald H. Kobe

Second quantization in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics is given in a simplified way using eigenstates of the number operator. The field creation operator is shown to be the operator which adds a particle with a delta-function wave function to the system, while the field annihilation operator removes a particle with a delta-function wave function from the system. The field creation operator is proved to be the Hermitian conjugate of the annihilation operator. The commutation (anticommutation) relations for boson (fermion) field operators are proved from the symmetry (antisymmetry) of the many-particle wave function. The second quantized form of one- and two-particle operators is obtained from their form in wave mechanics using the definition of the field creation and annihilation operators.

American Journal of Physics•Apr 1, 1983•4 citations

Second quantization

Radi A. Jishi

Nothing can be made out of nothing. William Shakespeare , King Lear Historically, quantization of the motion of particles was developed first. The state was described by a wave function and observables by operators. When dealing with interactions between particles and fields, such as the electromagnetic field, the fields were treated classically. Classical field equations look like the quantum mechanical equations for the wave function of the field quanta. For example, the Klein–Gordon classical field equation is similar to the quantum mechanical wave equation for a relativistic spinless particle. Quantizing the fields, leading to quantum field theory, appears to be quantizing a theory that has already been quantized; hence the name “second quantization.” In reality, there is only one quantization and one quantum theory. The method of second quantization is important in the study of many-particle systems. It enables us to express many-body operators in terms of creation and annihilation operators, thus rendering calculations less cumbersome. Moreover, the method makes it possible to treat systems with a variable number of particles; that is why the method initially emerged in the context of quantum field theory. In Chapter 1 we indicated that any one-particle wave function may be expanded in a complete set of states. In this chapter, we show that products of single-particle states, when properly symmetrized, form an orthonormal basis for the expansion of the wave function of an N -particle system.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Apr 23, 2013•0 citations

Mathematical Introduction

Leo P. Kadanoff, Gordon Baym

The properties of a quantum mechanical system composed of many identical particles are most conveniently described in terms of the second-quantized, Heisenberg representation, particle-creation, and annihilation operators. The creation operator, ψ †( r , t), when acting to the right on a state of the system, adds a particle to the state at the space-time point r , t; the annihilation operator ψ ( r , t), the adjoint of the creation operator, acting to the right, removes a particle from the state at the point r , t.

CRC Press eBooks•Mar 8, 2018•1 citation

Quantum Many-Particle Systems and Second Quantization

Hans-Peter Eckle

Abstract Chapter 2 provides a review of pertinent aspects of the quantum mechanics of systems composed of many particles. It focuses on the foundations of quantum many-particle physics, the many-particle Hilbert spaces to describe large assemblies of interacting systems composed of Bosons or Fermions, which lead to the versatile formalism of second quantization as a convenient and eminently practical language ubiquitous in the mathematical formulation of the theory of many-particle systems of quantum matter. The main objects in which the formalism of second quantization is expressed are the Bosonic or Fermionic creation and annihilation operators that become, in the position basis, the quantum field operators.

•Jul 25, 2019•0 citations
This chapter describes a very elegant way of accounting for the symmetry of the states and the operators of systems of many identical particles and illustrates its use in a few simple calculations. It presents operators in identical particle systems that remove particles from and add particles to the system. This formal similarity is the reason the creation and annihilation operator formalism is called second quantization; one-particle wave functions appear to have become operators which create and annihilate particles, while single particle expectation values appear to have become operators for physical quantities. The Hanbury-Brown and Twiss experiment provides a simple way of observing this tendency of bosons to clump together. Basically, the experiment measures the probability of observing two photons simultaneously at different points in a beam of incoherent light. The actual measuring apparatus uses a half silvered mirror, to split the beam into some identical beams; this avoids the problem of one detector casting a shadow on the other.
In this chapter we describe a technique to deal with identical particles that is called second quantization . Despite being a technique, second quantization helps a lot in understanding physics. One can learn and endlessly repeat newspaper-style statements particles are fields , fields are particles without grasping their meaning. Second quantization brings these concepts to an operational level. Since the procedure of second quantization is slightly different for fermions and bosons, we have to treat the two cases separately. We start with considering a system of identical bosons, and introduce creation and annihilation operators (CAPs) that change the number of particles in a given many-particle state, thereby connecting different states in Fock space. We show how to express occupation numbers in terms of CAPs, and then get to the heart of the second quantization: the commutation relations for the bosonic CAPs. As a next step, we construct field operators out of the CAPs and spend quite some time (and energy) presenting the physics of the particles in terms of these field operators. Only afterward, do we explain why all this activity has been called second quantization. In Section 3.4 we then present the same procedure for fermions, and we mainly focus on what is different as compared to bosons. The formalism of second quantization is summarized in Table 3.1.
Second quantization in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics is given in a simplified way using eigenstates of the number operator. The field creation operator is shown to be the operator which adds a particle with a delta-function wave function to the system, while the field annihilation operator removes a particle with a delta-function wave function from the system. The field creation operator is proved to be the Hermitian conjugate of the annihilation operator. The commutation (anticommutation) relations for boson (fermion) field operators are proved from the symmetry (antisymmetry) of the many-particle wave function. The second quantized form of one- and two-particle operators is obtained from their form in wave mechanics using the definition of the field creation and annihilation operators.
Nothing can be made out of nothing. William Shakespeare , King Lear Historically, quantization of the motion of particles was developed first. The state was described by a wave function and observables by operators. When dealing with interactions between particles and fields, such as the electromagnetic field, the fields were treated classically. Classical field equations look like the quantum mechanical equations for the wave function of the field quanta. For example, the Klein–Gordon classical field equation is similar to the quantum mechanical wave equation for a relativistic spinless particle. Quantizing the fields, leading to quantum field theory, appears to be quantizing a theory that has already been quantized; hence the name “second quantization.” In reality, there is only one quantization and one quantum theory. The method of second quantization is important in the study of many-particle systems. It enables us to express many-body operators in terms of creation and annihilation operators, thus rendering calculations less cumbersome. Moreover, the method makes it possible to treat systems with a variable number of particles; that is why the method initially emerged in the context of quantum field theory. In Chapter 1 we indicated that any one-particle wave function may be expanded in a complete set of states. In this chapter, we show that products of single-particle states, when properly symmetrized, form an orthonormal basis for the expansion of the wave function of an N -particle system.
The properties of a quantum mechanical system composed of many identical particles are most conveniently described in terms of the second-quantized, Heisenberg representation, particle-creation, and annihilation operators. The creation operator, ψ †( r , t), when acting to the right on a state of the system, adds a particle to the state at the space-time point r , t; the annihilation operator ψ ( r , t), the adjoint of the creation operator, acting to the right, removes a particle from the state at the point r , t.
Abstract Chapter 2 provides a review of pertinent aspects of the quantum mechanics of systems composed of many particles. It focuses on the foundations of quantum many-particle physics, the many-particle Hilbert spaces to describe large assemblies of interacting systems composed of Bosons or Fermions, which lead to the versatile formalism of second quantization as a convenient and eminently practical language ubiquitous in the mathematical formulation of the theory of many-particle systems of quantum matter. The main objects in which the formalism of second quantization is expressed are the Bosonic or Fermionic creation and annihilation operators that become, in the position basis, the quantum field operators.