Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-field-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/1/c/solution
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2017 1 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Let . The conjugate momentum fields are and . Inserting the given mode expansion of a free field into produces spatial Dirac delta factors. The and terms vanish after integration: they contain on , and . The number-conserving terms instead add their two frequency factors, cancelling the mode normalization. The un-subtracted ordered expression isThe last term is an infinite vacuum constant, not a finite physical vacuum charge. Choosing the Fock vacuum to have zero Noether charge, equivalently using normal ordering, givesA state containing quanta created by and by has Noether charge . Thus the two families describe opposite unit Noether charges; with this source's current the quantum has positive Noether charge and the quantum negative Noether charge. This is an internal Noether charge; identifying it with electric charge requires a specified electromagnetic coupling. The vacuum subtraction of a complex scalar charge leaves all commutators unchanged.[ref]
Quantum Field Theory by David Tong. Section 2.5, complex scalar fields and their opposite-charge oscillator families; the phase convention fixes the overall sign
Scope of the expansion: a fixed-frequency expansion with time-independent oscillator coefficients is the free-field or asymptotic-field form. For arbitrary interacting , it can be used as canonical oscillator coordinates at a chosen time, rather than as the exact interacting time dependence. For example, gives , which a generic free plane-wave superposition does not satisfy. The Noether charge and its generator action remain valid in the interacting theory; the symmetry does not depend on using a free Hamiltonian.
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