Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/2/c/solution

Choose the local positive axis along the classical spin. For nonzero field, a proper rotation is
It preserves the Spin commutation relations and turns the field term into . At zero field choose the classical direction , so . Expanding about the original axis without this rotation would put the reference state away from the classical minimum and would not give a controlled small-deviation expansion.
To the required order,
The longitudinal exchange gives on each bond. The transverse exchange gives
Finally the field contributes its classical constant and . Each site belongs to two bonds, so after removing the order- constant,
These are the order- terms; the discarded products of number operators and the next square-root terms are order for occupations held fixed as . A different transverse-axis phase can reverse the sign of without changing the spectrum, but the sign above follows from the stated rotation and oscillator convention.

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