Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/2/c/i/solution

The common Fock vacuum obeys . Put . By the commutator product rule and part (a),
Moving through therefore gives
Dividing by proves
The constructed number state is nonzero: the relation follows from and . Commuting different modes and successively moving each creation operator across the inner product yields
Thus the given factorial denominator also gives unit norm, as expected for a number state.

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