Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-matter-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/2/a/solution
Past exam of the quantum matter course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
For a uniform continuum gas with pair interactions depending on relative positions, a Galilean boost changes every particle momentum by and leaves the interaction energy unchanged. Write . The transformed many-body Hamiltonian operator isThe resting ground state has , so the Galilean boost energy of an interacting gas isThe mass here is the bare particle mass, because this is an exact transformation of the microscopic kinetic energy. Substituting the Fermi-liquid effective mass would omit the change in interaction energy encoded by the Landau quasiparticle energy functional. This conclusion requires the Principle of Galilean relativity; a gas in a lattice or a fixed external potential energy landscape need not obey it.
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