Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-condensed-matter-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/section-a/1/solution
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Section A 1 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
For a lattice-periodic one-electron Hamiltonian, Bloch's theorem givesHere is any lattice translation and labels an energy band. Under that translation the wavefunction gains phase . The crystal momentum labels this translation eigenvalue and is defined modulo for a reciprocal lattice vector .
The mechanical momentum is different. In zero magnetic field its operator is , which acts asA general Bloch state is therefore not a mechanical-momentum eigenstate. Expanding its periodic factor gives plane-wave components with momenta , with probabilities determined by their Fourier coefficients. For a local Hamiltonian , its mean momentum satisfiesnot generally . The lattice exchanges actual momentum with the electron; crystal-momentum conservation in scattering is instead modulo reciprocal-lattice vectors, as in Umklapp scattering.
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