SPONTANEOUS EMISSION 29

and use the Hamiltonian Equation (1.77). The Harmonic Perturbation is

given by the last two terms
H
1
=
e
m
A p +
e
2
2m
A
2
(1.107)
with A given by Equation (1.41)
A(x) =
_
4
V

k,
1
_
2
k
[a

(k) e
ikx

(k) +a

(k) e
ikx

(k)] (1.108)
which contains harmonic factors of the form exp(it), just as we consid-
ered in the previous section. We use Equation (1.94) to get
c
(1)
f
= i
_
f

H
1

i
_
e
i(E
f
E
i
)t
= i
_
B; k,

e
m
A p +
e
2
2m
A
2

A; 0
_
e
i(E
B
E
A
)t
(1.109)
We assigned zero energy to the electromagnetic term in H
0
so E
f
= E
B
. The
term linear in A creates or annihilates a photon through a

(k) and a

(k) so
it changes the number of photons by 1. It can be seen that the A
2
term
changes the number of photons by 0 or 2 so this term does not contribute
to Equation (1.106) because the product with the bra
_
k,

would be zero.
In the present case we must create one photon so the product with
_
k,

must be non-zero. So only the a

(k) term in p A contributes. We obtain

c
(1)
f
= i
_
4
V2
_

e
m
_
_
B; k,

(k)e
ikx

(k) p

A; 0
_
e
i(E
B
E
A
+)t
(1.110)
where x is the coordinate of the charged particle (for example the electron
in a H-atom) and p is its momentum, while k is the momentum of the
photon. We know that a

(k)

0
_
=

k,
_
(the creation operator in action)
so
_
k,

(k)

0
_
= 1 and one bra and one ket disappears from the product
bra and ket. Thus we get
c
(1)
f
=
ie
m
_
4
V2
k
_
B

e
ikx

(k) p

A
_
e
i(E
B
E
A
+)t
(1.111)
If we compare this expression with the general expression in Equation (1.95)
for a harmonic perturbation we nd that
V =
ie
m
_
4
V2
k
e
ikx

(k) p (1.112)