Condensed Matter Physics, Second Edition

by Michael P. Marder
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

C. Second Quantization

C.l Rules

C.1.1 States
Begin with a complete orthonormal set of basis functions ipi. Any collection of
identical particles can be described by sums of products of these functions. In the
formalism of second quantization, one focuses upon many-body basis functions,
which describe how many particles are in each state. For example,

|0,2,3,10,...) (C.l)

means that no particles are in state ip\, two particles are in state V>2, three are in
state fa, and so on. The integers describing the numbers of particles are called
occupation numbers.

C.1.2 Operators
The operators of second quantization change the numbers of particles in these
quantum states. There is a creation operator with index / that adds one particle
to state / and an annihilation operator with index / that takes one particle away
from state /.
Fermions. The Pauli principle prohibits more than one electron from occupying
any given quantum state, so the occupation numbers all are zero or one. The cre-
ation and annihilation operators are usually denoted by cj and c/ respectively. The
way they operate is

ci\n\ri2 ... ni ...) = < . „ , .r , (L.za)

1
' \ |m«2 • • . 0 . . .) if«/ = 1
ti
c\\n\ni ... ni ...) \ =
_ /<°. , > ifn/
.c = „l (C.2b)
" ' \ \n\n2 . . . 1 . . .) if ni = 0.
The operators anticommute:

c]c},+c],c] = 0 (C.3a)
C[Ci> + CfCi = 0 (C.3b)
cic], + c],ci = Su' ■ (C.3c)

907
908 Appendix C. Second Quantization

Bosons. Bosons can inhabit any quantum state as often as they please, so the
occupation numbers range over all non-negative integers. The creation and an-
nihilation operators are usually denoted by a[ and <3/ respectively. The way they
operate is
âi\n\H2 . . . ni . . .} = y/h~i\nin2 . . . « / - 1 . . .) (C.4a)
âj|ni«2 . . . « / . . . ) = \A*/ + l|«i«2 • • • ni + l . . .). (C.4b)
The operators commute:
â\â], - â],â] = 0 (C.5a)
âiâi' — âi'âi = 0 (C.5b)
âiâj, — aj,âi = Ou' • (C.5c)

C.1.3 Hamiltonians
A Hamiltonian that is given as a sum of operators on single particles can be rewrit-
ten in second quantized notation as
J-C := \ f: fj means an operator such as f(7j) that acts (C.6)
^—? in some identical fashion upon each particle
J j in turn.

= y ^ c] {ipi^lfillpi' (\))ci/. The wave functions tpi and operator / all act (C.7)
,,, on particle 1. The expression for bose opera-
tors is identical.

The notation \ipi>(l)) means that particle number 1 is in state ipy. For example, if
/ is the kinetic energy operator and tpi is the product of a Wannier function wi and
a spin function Xh then

<V>/(i)l/ihMi)> = <W / ^ i ™ ; ( n ) z U i M n ) (C.8)

The leading delta function requires the spins of the two states to be the same.
The Laplacian V^ acts on variable T\.

A Hamiltonian that is given as a sum of operators on pairs of particles can be

rewritten in second quantized notation as
3"C = y fj:/ fjji means an operator such as / ( ? / , 7y) that (C.9)
acts in some identical fashion upon pairs of
M/' particles.

= Y, eJ4e/'"e/"(^/(l)#(2)|/i2|#'(l)#"(2)) (C.10)

For example, if fu is the Coulomb interaction and ipi is the product of some spatial
wave function </>/ and a spin function xi, then
(V/(l)#(2)|/i2|#'(l)#"(2)>
f e2
= lôxtXi"0x,'Xi'" / àridr2 4>*(ri)4>Hr2r)7z —><t>i"(?\)<l>i>"(?i)■ ( C l l )
J \ \ —>"2\
Often one does not write down spin sums or spin delta functions explicitly and just
multiplies the final answer by appropriate factors of two.
 Derivations 909

C.2 Derivations
C.2.1 Bosons
A collection of Bose particles can be described by a wave function of the form

i"i"2*3...)=JWL, £ ni^M- (ci«

V Permutations Sj y'=l

The function Sj gives some permutation of the integers j , and by summing over
all permutations the wave function is guaranteed to be symmetric under interchange
of all indices.
The function /(_/) is some function into the positive integers. The idea is that the
states ipi are numbered in a way that may be quite arbitrary. Suppose one decides
to build a many-body state with one particle in state 1 and two particles in state 3.
The function l(j) could then be

/(1) = 3, /(2) = 1 /(3) = 3. (C.13)

Notation of the form |?/>2(6)) means that particle number 6 is in state ip2-
The number of times a certain integer l(j) appears as j ranges from 1 to N is
ni, so m gives the number of particles in state /. The factors of n\\ri2\ ■ ■ ■ account
for the fact that any given term in the sum where n\ particles are in state 1 appears
n\\ times. To illustrate that the factorials are correctly employed, suppose first of
all that there is only one particle in each distinct state. Then there are N\ distinct
orthogonal functions appearing in the sum (C.12), and the normalization must be
\/y/N\. On the other hand, suppose all particles are in state ip\. Then all the N\
terms in the sum are identical, and the sum must be divided by AH to produce a
normalized wave function.
To study the behavior of this wave function, it is helpful to define the operator

iz-/' El^(i))(#(;)l- (c.14)

The effect of this operator is to search one at a time for each particle in state ipi>
and move it to state ipi.
To use this operator, consider a Hamiltonian of the form (C.6),

^ = E fj = E \MJ))(W)\fj\MJ)){MJ)\ (c.15)
= \ £/<_/' (lbi(\) I f\ | l / > ; / ( l ) ) . The matrix elements of the one-particle oper- (C.16)
.,, ator / do not depend upon which particle is
involved, so the label 1 can be used instead of
j-

Let £/<_// act upon |«i«2 • • •)• If state ipi> is not occupied, the result is zero. If
it is occupied, then in every term of (C.12), there will be precisely ni> values of j
910 Appendix C. Second Quantization

for which there is a nonzero result, with the population of state /' being reduced by
1 and the population of state / being increased by 1. The result will not be properly
normalized because \fn[i\n\\ is in the denominator rather than y/(ni> — l)!(n/ + 1)!,
and a factor of n^ has been acquired along the way. So

£/<-/'lwi«2 • • •) = y «/'(«/ + 1)| . . . «// - 1 . . . n/ + 1 . . .). (C.17)

For this reason, define
a]\n\ , n2 ■ ■ ■) = A/«Z + 1| . . . n/ + l ■ ( C l 8a)
â[\n\ , n2 ■ . .) = y/h~i\ . . . ni - 1 . . .) (C.18b)
so that
£■
£S/^/' 4 -a/i.
= a, (C.19)
It is easy from Eq. (C.18) to check the commutation relations (C.5) by allowing
the creation and annihilation operators to act in various orders upon general states
\n\n2 . . .).

C.2.2 Fermions
The wave function describing a collection of fermions must be antisymmetric under
interchange of arguments, and it consists of sums of terms of the form
N
fT
* = h«2 • - •) = v^ï £ (-1)" II Mœto)>. (c.20)
' ' Permutations Sj j=\
where the sum is over all permutations Sj of j = 1 . . . N, with 5 the sign of the
permutation. In order for ^ not to equal zero, no more than one electron is allowed
to inhabit each individual state. If an electron is in state /, then «/ is one and
otherwise it is zero.
Given the occupation numbers «/ for each state ipi, the wave function that can
be formed from the collection is almost unique. There is only one ambiguity, which
has to do with the overall sign of the wave function. The ambiguity is avoided by
requiring that /(_/) be an increasing function of j .
Consider again a Hamiltonian of the form (C.15), acting on antisymmetric
wave functions ^ as in Eq. (C.20). It is sufficient to examine the behavior of a
single term in the sum (C.15). For example, look at
(*a\Ml))(Ml)\*b). (C21)
(C.21) is nonzero only if in \^b) ipi' is occupied, ipi unoccupied, while in |^>a)
ijj[i is unoccupied, ipi is occupied, and otherwise tya and ^>b are identical. To be
explicitly, let

l^>=£(-l)' S ^lVM(si)>hMs2))|V>3(s3)) (C.22)

|^> = E(-ir-Ll^(*i)>l^(^2))|V'4(^)> (C23)

 Derivations 911

and look at
(* f l |^(l))(V 4 (l)|**). (C.24)

The parts of the wave functions that survive are

1r
(^(2)|(Vi(3)|-(Vi(2)|(^(3)|
3!
'<V>2(l)hMl)> (C.25)

|^(2))|^(3)) -|^3(2))|Vi(3))

(C.26)

The general lesson to learn from this example is that one must permute ipi past all
the states below it in the ordering scheme to produce the term |Vv(l)), obtaining a
factor of
(_!)£;=! »^ (C.27)
where «/ is 1 if state / is occupied in tya and zero otherwise. One also has a factor
v-V-l
(-1) (C.28)

similarly, so that
N
,/'-!
e^lVvOm'U)!**) = (-1)^=« ^(-1)^=. "' (C.29)
7=1

if it is not zero.
Therefore, one can again define the operator £/«_/> from Eq. (C. 14). Write wave
functions in the occupation number representation

| * > = |«1«2«3 >, (C30)

where each n,- can be either zero or one. In the example above,

|* a ) = |1110000. . .) (C.31)
|#fc) = | 1011000. . .). (C.32)

In acting on such a wave function

£/<_//|«in2n3 • • •} (C.33)

= ( - i ) E U ' " > ( - l ) ^ = i njSnillönio\nin2m . . . nv - 1 . . . ni + 1 . . .).

The creation and annihilation operators are defined so that

£/<_/> =0%,. (C.34)

912 AppendixC. Second Quantization

More explicitly,

j=1 n
Q|«in2«3 • • ■) = 5i,n,(-l) '\n\n2m . . . rc;_i 0 « / + ] . . .) (C.35a)

cj|«in2«3 • • ^ ^ o . n X - 1 ) i=l y
|"i"2"3 • • • "/-i 1 "/+1 • • •)• (C.35b)

The anti-commutation relations in Eq. (C.3) can be verified explicitly from this
definition.
A final relation that should be verified is Eq. (C.IO). The special ordering of
the creation and annihilation operators results from the condition j ^ / in the sum
over particle numbers. Write

E fjr

= E IV'/O0)I^K/))(V'/a)#(/)l/i/l#K;>/-(/))(V'/»(i)K#»(/)l
;//
(C.36)

= E [\MJ)){^i"U)\] [l^'(/)><#»(/)l] {MJ)MJ')\fjjWi>iJ)rPi>»(j'))

ll>l"t"'
j/

E <W' [\Mj)H^i'"U)\] (MJ)MJ)\fjjWi»UWi>"U)) (C.37)

,,1,11,111
j

'{"V"

- Y. 5/'/"^/"'^/(l)#(2)|/i2|#'(l)#»(2)> (C38)

E c]"c///c/t,c/»'(^/(l)#(2)|/i2|V'/"(l)#''(2))
//'/"/
E <*/'/» £/V (^(1)#(2)|/12|^/»(1)^»(2)> (C.39)
//'/"/"

E c/t4c////c///(V/(l)V/'(2)|/,2|#'(l)#»(2)>. (C40)
//'/"/'•