Unitary quantum phase operators for bosons and fermions: a model study on the quantum phases of interacting particles in a symmetric double-well potential

Abstract

We introduce unitary quantum phase operators for material particles. We carry out a model study on quantum phases of interacting bosons in a symmetric double-well potential in terms of unitary and commonly used non-unitary phase operators and compare the results for a different number of bosons. We find that the results for unitary quantum phase operators are significantly different from those for non-unitary ones especially in the case of a low number of bosons. We introduce unitary operators corresponding to the quantum phase-difference between two single-particle states of fermions. As an application of fermionic phase operators, we study a simple model of a pair of interacting two-component fermions in a symmetric double-well potential. We also investigate quantum phase and number fluctuations to ascertain number-phase uncertainty in terms of unitary phase operators.