States and Operators

Abstract

Abstract This chapter sets out the second-quantisation treatment for systems of identical bosons or fermions. Key features such as the symmetrisation principle and super-selection rules are presented. Orthogonality and completeness requirements for mode functions are set out, and Fock states are defined in terms of mode occupancy, leading to the definitions of mode annihilation and creation operators and the determination of their commutation (bosons) or anticommutation (fermions) rules. Important two-mode states such as binomial states and relative-phase eigenstates are considered. Field creation and annihilation operators are defined and related to multi-particle position eigenstates. The Hamiltonian is expressed in terms of both mode operators and field operators, state dynamics being treated via Liouville–von Neumann, master or Matsubara equations for the density operator. Normal ordering is introduced and applied to expressions for the vacuum state projector. Multi-particle position probabilities are considered and related to normally ordered quantum correlation functions.