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Formal means

Helmut Hofmann

Published Apr 17, 2008• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract This chapter elucidates various mathematical formulas. Based on expressions for Gaussian integrals in one and many dimensions, the methods of stationary phase and steepest descent are deduced, representations of the delta-function are given and applied to Fourier and Laplace transformations. For quantal operators, the Mori product is introduced and an important formula for the derivative of exponentials is shown. Elementary properties of spin and isospin are discussed; for fermions, the formalism of second quantization is produced.

DOI
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198504016.003.0026

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Abstract This chapter elucidates various mathematical formulas. Based on expressions for Gaussian integrals in one and many dimensions, the methods of stationary phase and steepest descent are deduced, representations of the delta-function are given and applied to Fourier and Laplace transformations. For quantal operators, the Mori product is introduced and an important formula for the derivative of exponentials is shown. Elementary properties of spin and isospin are discussed; for fermions, the formalism of second quantization is produced.
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This chapter provides a simple general introduction to some basic mathematics necessary for a subsequent discussion of Lie algebras, operator methods, and their applications to theoretical physics and chemistry. It also provides some useful mathematical tools to derive important theoretical results and expressions in a simple and elegant way. In quantum mechanics the state of a system is represented by an element of a particular vector space, in which one defines an appropriate scalar or inner product, known in mathematics as Hilbert space. Hermitian operators with a complete set of eigenvectors belonging to that state space represent physical observables. Moreover, in certain cases it proves useful to work with vector spaces formed by linear operators. Hermitian operators are particular cases of linear operators and physical observables are particular cases of Hermitian operators. In many physical applications of operator methods one needs to reorder products of exponential operators or to rewrite one such operator as a product of simpler ones.
This chapter focuses on a basic but systematic treatment of wavefunctions. By comparison with a spin 1/2 system, the concept of a wavefunction as a collection of coefficients is developed, followed by discussions of eigenstates, operators, and representations in the context of wavefunctions. Transformation from position to momentum representation is effected by a Fourier transform. This is developed next, and illustrated for a Gaussian. The discussion of phases and time evolution in earlier chapters is now applied to wavefunctions, and the time evolution of a free particle discussed. The concept of a wavepacket and its suitability for representing particles follows. A topic of some subtlety — and one which is discussed in detail — is the use of bra-ket (Dirac) notation for wavefunctions. The chapter closes with a short epilogue.
Linear algebra is the natural mathematical language of quantum mechanics. For this reason, the present chapter starts with a review of Hilbert spaces for vectors and operators. We introduce vector and Hilbert spaces along with inner products and metrics. The Dirac notation is developed for the Euclidean vector spaces as a starting point for the concepts of complete orthonormal sets of vectors, closure, dual vector spaces, and adjoint operators. The Dirac delta function in various forms and the principal part is introduced in Appendix 5 as an essential tool. The chapter turns to the main use of Dirac notation for function spaces; the concepts of norm, inner product, and closure are discussed. Fourier, Cosine, and Sine series are discussed as examples of expansions in complete orthonormal sets of functions. Although Hilbert spaces are interesting mathematical objects with important physical applications, the study of linear algebra remains incomplete without a study of linear operators (i.e., linear transformations). In fact, the set of linear transformations itself forms a vector space and therefore has a basis set. The basis set for the operator is linked with the basis sets for the spaces that it operates between. The linear operator can be discussed as an abstract operator or through an isomorphism as a matrix or as a generalized expansion in operator space. A Hermitian (a.k.a., self-adjoint) operator produces a basis set within a Hilbert space. The basis set comes from the eigenvector equation for the particular operator. The fact that a Hermitian operator produces a complete set (of orthornomal vectors) has special importance for quantum mechanics. Observables such as energy or momentum correspond to Hermitian operators. Complete sets make it possible to represent every possible result of a measurement of the observable by an object (vector) in the theory. The Hermitian operators have real eigenvalues which represent the results of the measurement.
This chapter contains a brief compilation of information about various fields and contractions. The field formalism is fully applicable also to the ordinary quantum mechanics of systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom. The simplest example is that of a particle in a given external field. Preliminary separation of the δ function is necessary, for example, when calculating the amplitude by the stationary-phase method (the semiclassical approximation), since the conservation laws expressed by the δ functions automatically make the kernel of the quadratic form of the second variation of the action degenerate in the neighborhood of a classical trajectory. Nonrelativistic field theory is the quantum mechanics of systems with an arbitrary number of identical particles in the second-quantized formalism. In the classical theory such systems are described by a complex field ψ, ψ + which is an ordinary or anticommuting function.
We establish equations for scalar and fermion fields using results obtained from a study on a phase space representation of quantum theory that we have performed in a previous work. Our approaches are similar to the historical ones to obtain Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations but the main difference is that ours are based on the use of properties of operators called dispersion-codispersion operators. We begin with a brief recall about the dispersion-codispersion operators. Then, introducing a mass operator with its canonical conjugate coordinate and applying rules of quantization, based on the use of dispersion - codispersion operators, we deduce a second order differential operator relation from the relativistic expression relying energy, momentum and mass. Using Dirac matrices, we derive from this second order differential operator relation a first order one. The application of the second order differential operator relation on a scalar function gives the equation for the scalar field and the use of the first order differential operator relation leads to the equation for fermion field.