PH5480: End-sem Paper

Ayan Mukhopadhyay

1 Problem 1
• Consider two fermionic oscillators satisfying the anti-commutation relations

{a, a† } = 1, {a, a} = {a† , a† } = 0,

{b, b† } = 1, {b, b} = {b† , b† } = 0,
{a, b† } = {b, a† } = {b† , a† } = {b, a} = 0. (1)

and with the Hamiltonian in the normal ordered form

H = ϵ0 a† a − ϵ0 b† b + constant. (2)

So one of these oscillators have energy ϵ0 and the other one −ϵ0 .
We consider new oscillators ã and b̃ which are linear superpositions of the form

ã = α1 a + α2 b + β1 a† + β2 b† ,
b̃ = γ1 a + γ2 b + δ1 a† + δ2 b† (3)

with α1 , α2 , β1 , β2 , γ1 , γ2 , δ1 and δ2 being complex numbers. Find out the condi-

tions which α1 , α2 , β1 , β2 , γ1 , γ2 , δ1 and δ2 must satisfy such that ã, ㆠ, b̃ and b̃†
satisfy the same anti-commutation relations (as if there were no tildes on top).

• For which values of α1 , α2 , β1 , β2 , γ1 , γ2 , δ1 and δ2 the Hamiltonian H in (2)

remains invariant? (Think smartly and do not employ brute force.)

2 Problem 2
Consider a single photon state with momentum in the z−direction and linearly po-
larized along the x−direction. What should be the state of this photon for another

1
observer travelling with velocity c/2 in the y−direction? Write down the state in the
frame of this observer as a superposition of +1 and −1 helicity states (with circular
polarizations) and interpret it in terms of its polarization. (Does it describe linearly
or elliptically polarized light if we compute the expectation values of the electric and
magnetic fields in this state? If linearly polarized, then what is the plane of polariza-
tion?)

3 Problem 3
Show that
• Tr(p/1 p/2 p/3 p/4 ) = 4[(p1 · p2 )(p3 · p4 ) + (p1 · p4 )(p2 · p3 ) − (p1 · p3 )(p2 · p4 )].

• Tr(γ5 p/1 p/2 p/3 p/4 ) = 4iϵµνρσ pµ1 pν2 pρ3 pσ4 .

4 Problem 4
Consider the action
∫ [
1 1 1
S = d4 x (∂µ vν )(∂ µ v ν ) − (∂µ v µ )2 + ∂µ ϕ∂ µ ϕ + α(∂µ v µ )ϕ
2 2 2
]
1 1
− m21 ϕ2 − m22 vµ v µ , (4)
2 2

where α is a constant with mass dimension one. Show that the above action describes
one or more freely propagating spin 1 vector and spin 0 scalar fields each of which is
built out of linear combinations of v µ , ϕ and their derivatives. What are the masses of
the corresponding particles?

5 Problem 5
Let ν be a Dirac fermion. Consider the following mass terms
mR
L = −mD νν − (ν R νc
R + h.c.), (5)
2
where ψb denotes the Majorana conjugate of a Dirac fermion ψ . Find the mass eigen-
states and eigenvalues.