Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-advanced-quantum-physics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/section-b/6/b/solution

The orthogonal projection onto the full spin- subspace is
Here the identity acts on all oscillator states. The finite-time scattering operator in the question is the interaction picture time-evolution operator, so . Projecting its two orthogonal spin components yields
Expand the right-hand side in the orthonormal basis . Taking its squared norm, and using the normalization of , gives
Thus one sums probabilities over unobserved final oscillator states, not their probability amplitudes. Unitarity of makes the sum over both equal to one.

New to topics? Read the docs here!