Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/5/d/solution

Since every quasiparticle energy is positive, the ground state is the vacuum of all the annihilation operators, including . Its zero-momentum mode is therefore empty. For each positive momentum, the inverse Bogoliubov transformation gives
Both annihilate the normalized pair state . For example, applying produces the two cancelling terms . Thus
The factors have even fermion parity and commute for disjoint momentum pairs. Each normalized factor is a superposition of zero and two fermions, whose pair-occupation probability is . Therefore
There is no zero-mode contribution. For fixed , the sum converges since .
A normalized simple excited state is for . Its excitation energy is , and its total momentum is : both terms in add momentum . Acting on the pair gives
The affected pair now contains exactly one fermion instead of mean number ; all other pairs are unchanged. Consequently
This is the fermion number of a Bogoliubov excitation. Its change in mean fermion number lies between zero and one for , with the value one at . The Bogoliubov quasiparticle coherently mixes adding a fermion and removing the opposite-momentum fermion; it is not an eigen-excitation of the original fermion number operator. Indeed,
so fermion number is not conserved when , while fermion parity is conserved. The generally noninteger change is an expectation value in a coherent paired background, rather than a fractional eigenvalue of the fermion number operator. In the weak-pairing limit at fixed , it tends to one, as expected for an ordinary added fermion.

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