Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/2/e/solution
Past exam of the theoretical physics major option course of the University of Oxford 2015 2 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Choose the positive- polarized ground state selected by , or its symmetry-selected limit. It is exactly the boson vacuum in the Holstein–Primakoff transformation. Thus and giveFor the transverse components, and . In the vacuum, the only nonzero quadratic ladder-operator expectation iswhich follows using the full ordered square-root operators, or directly from . ThereforeAn independent exact spin argument starts from and . Rotational invariance about makes the two transverse second moments equal, so each is . This agrees exactly with the full boson representation.
The first moments describe the local magnetization. Subtracting their squares from the second moments gives spin component variances: zero longitudinal variance and transverse variance . Transverse quantum fluctuations persist in a perfectly polarized state even though its magnon occupation is zero. Their relative scale decreases as in the classical limit.
At precisely , “the ground state” requires a choice within the ferromagnetic multiplet. For example, when is an integer, a maximum-total-spin state with total projection zero is also a ground state but has . The displayed local moments refer to the explicitly specified polarized member, not to every superposition or rotationally invariant mixture of zero-field ground states.
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