Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/iii/paper-81/2/c/solution

For real and , introduce the particle-hole column . Its quadratic block is the Bogoliubov--de Gennes Hamiltonian
The BCS coherence factors can be chosen to obey
With , choose the sign of to match . The rotation diagonalizes the matrix to . Reordering and restoring the mean-field constant gives
The inverse transformation is and . Both annihilate . Since every positive-energy quasiparticle mode is empty, the normalized BCS ground state is
Each momentum label refers to the pair once; distinct labels use disjoint single-particle spin states.

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