Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/5/b/solution
Past exam of the theoretical physics major option course of the University of Oxford 2018 5 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
For real angles write and . For one independent pair , the transformation and its conjugate readUsing the canonical anticommutation relations for the modes givesThe remaining anticommutators vanish for independent momentum pairs. The displayed two-by-two matrix is unitary and its inverse is obtained by changing to .
When the same formula is indexed over both signs of momentum, its first row at must agree with the conjugate of its second row at . Thus a consistent global convention requiresThis is the odd-momentum fermionic Bogoliubov angle convention. If one checks only the first-row formulas, their cross anticommutator is ; its vanishing gives the condition modulo , with possible signs absorbable in the modes. Requiring both rows to describe the same operators fixes the convention above. Merely checking a separate unitary matrix at each momentum misses this redundancy: choosing in both first rows would give .
At , the annihilation operator and its conjugate belong to one mode. The full displayed formula is consistent only with ; choose and . This mode is not a two-mode pair.
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