Questions tagged [anticommutator]
The anticommutator tag has no usage guidance.
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Canonical Variables in Dirac Spinor Field Theory
In S.Weinberg [QFT V1][1] section 7.1, in eq (7.1.15) and (7.1.16), he states that in order to be consistent with the previous-derived anti-commutator relation, we should take $\psi_{\text{n}}$ and $\...
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Deriving the equal time anti-commutator of the Dirac fields [closed]
I am trying to solve an exercise on deriving the equal-time anti-commutator of the Dirac fields. But I got stuck somewhere and couldn't get the desired result.
I would like to show that
$$
\{\psi(x), \...
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$C$-number ignored in charge conjugation
In Weinberg’s QFT V1, under equation 5.5.58, he says that an anticommutator ($c$-number) can be ignored when we exchange spinors, $\psi$ and $\bar{\psi}$. I cannot fully appreciate why we can ignore ...
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(Anti) Commutation relation of derivative of the fermionic operator
While deriving Semiconductor Bloch equation, I stumbled upon a commutation relation that I have never seen before. It looks like,
$$[\alpha_k^{\dagger}\alpha_k, \alpha_{k'}^{\dagger}(\nabla_{k'}\...
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Does the anticommutator of two spinors affect the transpose of their product?
My lecture notes claim that for an anticommutation relation
$$[ \psi_{\mu}(\bf{x},t),{\psi_{{\nu}}^{*}}(\bf{y},t)] = \delta_{\mu \nu} \delta^3(\bf{x}-\bf{y})$$
between two spinors, the transpose of ...
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Product of spinors in Dirac field anticommutators
I am reading a "A modern introduction to quantum field theory" by Maggiore and on page 88 it shows the anticommutators of the Dirac field:
$$
\{\psi_a(\vec{x},t),\psi_{b}^{\dagger}(\vec{y},t)...
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Confusion about whether a fermion field and its conjugate as an Grassmann number
I'm confused about what "a Grassmann-odd number" really means and how does it apply to fermions.
In some text, it says that "if $\varepsilon \eta+\eta \varepsilon =0 $, then $\...
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How to generalize the (anti)commutation for spacelike separation to more than $2$ field operators?
Let $\phi_1$ and $\phi_2$ be quantum field operators of certain spin on $\mathbb{R}^4$. Then, the principle of locality dictates that if $x$ and $y$ are space-like separated, we have
\begin{equation}
\...
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Geometry of anticommutation relations
I am asking this question as a mathematician trying to understand quantum theory, so please forgive my naivety.
Systems satisfying the canonical commutation relations are naturally modeled with ...
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Quantization of an Interacting Field Theory
The procedure to quantize free field theories is imposing a commutation/anticommutation relation with the field and its conjugate momentum, as $$\mathcal L = i\bar\psi\gamma^\mu\partial_\mu\psi\...
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Why does $[Q,P]=i\hbar$ work for fermion? Shouldn't fermion satisfy anticommuting relation?
For hydrogen, we use $[Q,P]=i\hbar$ for electron, which is a fermion. Does it have a deeper reason such as that we're really considering the proton + electron system, which might be of bosonic nature?
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Why is commutation bracket used instead of anti-commutation bracket on page 61 of Peskin QFT?
Peskin&Schroeder was performing a trick where they used
$$J_za^{s\dagger}_0|0\rangle=[J_z,a^{s\dagger}_0]|0\rangle\tag{p.61}$$ and claimed that the only non-zero term in this commutator would be ...
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Help with commutator algebra with fermionic operators
I am struggling to understand how the following is true for the fermionic creation/annihilation operators $a^\dagger, a$: $$[a^\dagger a, a]=-a$$
If someone could walk me through the math derivation ...
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The renormalized fermionic operators do not anti-commute?
Let's say we have fermionic operators $a$ and $b$ (which anti-commute). In the context of a renormalization scheme (I am thinking specifically of Wilson's NRG, but it could be DMRG) I have a matrix $P$...
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Anticommutation relations for Dirac field at non-equal times
I'm reading this paper by Alfredo Iorio and I have a doubt concerning the anticommutation relations he uses for the Dirac field.
Around eq. (2.25), he wants to find the unitary operator $U$ that ...
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Why do we only consider commutators and anticommutators in QFT?
While studying canonical quantization in QFT, I observed that we quantize fields either by a commutation or an anticommutation relation
\begin{equation}
[\phi(x), \phi(y)]_\pm := \phi(x) \phi(y) \pm \...
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Relationship between anti-commutators and correlation
Ballentine (in his solution at the back of the book to his Problem 8.10) writes that
$$[Tr(\rho \{A,B\}/2)]^2$$
is related to the correlation between the observables represented by $A,B$, but gives no ...
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Anticommutator Relation of Quantized Fermionic Field and Fermi–Dirac statistics: How are these related?
I'm reading the Wikipedia article about Fermionic field and have some troubles to understand the meaning following phrase:
We impose an anticommutator relation (as opposed to a commutation relation ...
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Can Exceptional Jordan Quantum mechanics model field theory?
Exceptional Jordan Quantum mechanics is an interesting case in which observables are modelled with $3\times3$ Hermitian octonion matrices $\mathbb{J}_3(\mathbb{O})$. There is the Jordan product $A\...
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What is the motivation for the Self-Dual Canonical Anticommutation Relation (CAR) algebra?
What exactly is the motivation for the use of the Self-Dual Canonical Anticommutation Relation (CAR) algebra in the context of infinite lattice systems? Why not remain with the CAR algebra, as both ...
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Why can the commutator of a general expression be replaced by the anti-commutator in the $bc$ CFT theory?
Polchinski states in his equation 2.6.14 (in his book String Theory Vol. 1, Introduction to the Bosonic String) that for charges $Q_1$ and $Q_2$ the following equation holds, where $j_i$ is the ...
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Commutation of kinetic energy operator with Hamiltonian
I am basically trying to calculate current energy operator $\hat{\mathbf{J}}_E(\mathbf{r})$ by using Heisenberg equation of motion as
$$
-\nabla\cdot \hat{\mathbf{J}}_E(\mathbf{r})=\frac{i}{\hbar}[H,\...
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Anti-commutator of angular momentum operators for arbitrary spin
I know the commutator of angular momentum operators are
$$
[J_i,J_j]=\mathrm i\hbar \varepsilon_{ijk}J_k.
$$
For spin-1/2 particles, $J_i=\frac\hbar2\sigma_i$ where $\sigma_i$ are Pauli matrices, and ...
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Contour integral for commutator of fermionic fields
Suppose we have primary fields $A$ and $B$ which have the OPE,
$$A(z) B(w) = \frac{1}{z-w} = -B(z)A(w), \quad |z| > |w|,\tag{1}$$
so they have fermionic statistics. Now I was curious how this would ...
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About the Hilbert space that carries the representation of $\{\psi (x), \bar{\psi (y) }\}=i\delta (x-y) $?
What is this Hilbert space? Is it the complex Hilbert space of wavefunctionals spanned by using the spinor-field configurations as the basis vectors?
I know that the wavefunctional space carries a ...
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Dirac spinor field anti-commutation
I am thinking the anti-commutation property of Dirac field! First, note that the equal time anti-commutation relation (from P&S's QFT):
$$\{ \psi_a(\mathbf{x}),\psi_b^{\dagger}(\mathbf{y}) \}=\...
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Can Hadamard's formula be used for fermionic operators?
Can I use this special case of Hadamard's formula
$$e^\hat B \hat A e^{-\hat B}= A + [B,A]+\frac{1}{2!}[B, [B,A]] + \dots$$
for fermionic operators?
Suppose I have fermionic operators that obey ...
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Adding a surface term to Dirac action modifies the canonical anticommutation relations [duplicate]
I'm dealing with the following issue: when describing a fermionic field, one can use the typical Dirac Lagrangian $$\mathcal{L}=\bar\psi(i\gamma^\mu\partial_\mu-m)\psi,\tag{1}$$ or the more symmetric ...
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Why do fermions anti-commute in Ising model?
In my course fermions are given like a product of spin and (dual to spin) disorder parameter in 2D Ising square lattice. Then, using the properties of disorder parameter I can prove that fermions ...
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Where do arbitrary phases of wavefunctions go under second-quantization?
As far as I understand, a second-quantized operator in QFT or condensed matter represents a many-body wavefunction (symmetrized for bosons or antisymmetrized for fermions). But every wavefunction is ...
