Choose five Hermitian four-by-four matrices obeying the Euclidean Clifford algebra relations . For , the displayed anti-Hermitian matrices satisfy the Special orthogonal Lie algebra Lie bracket relations. A direct proof first establishes , then applies the commutator product rule to . One explicit choice is , , , , , with the Pauli matrices. The Cartan subalgebra operators and have simultaneous eigenvalues , identifying the four-dimensional spinor representation. A full rotation acts as , proving it does not descend to .
Commutator with powers of an eigenoperator 2026-10-25
Suppose linear operators obey , where is a scalar, on a common invariant operator domain. The commutator product rule givesFor both sides vanish. This identity explains how powers of a creation operator shift the number operator eigenvalue.
Past exam of the groups and representations course of the University of Oxford 2019 4 d Solution 2026-10-25
Use the basis matrices from solution. Define the Pauli matrices and the two-by-two identity byThe following five Hermitian four-by-four matrices, written as Kronecker products, realize a Euclidean Clifford algebra:Define the Lie algebra representation on byThese are anti-Hermitian matrices, appropriate to the real compact Lie algebra. For complete explicitness, all ten representation matrices areEach table entry is the image under of the basis matrix immediately to its left. Since the two-by-two factors are specified above, these Kronecker products specify every entry of each four-by-four matrix.
To verify the representation law, the Clifford algebra relations implyApply this identity to and use the commutator product rule. The result isexactly the Lie bracket relation in solution. Thus is a Lie algebra representation.
It remains to identify its highest weight, rather than just its dimension. The commuting Hermitian Cartan subalgebra operators areTheir simultaneous eigenvalues are . Converting with gives exactly the four weights of in solution. A state with has highest weight , so this Clifford realization of the so5 spin representation is the requested .
Finally, , soThis explicitly exhibits the distinction between the spinor representation of , or of , and a single-valued group representation of .
Past exam of the non-commutative rings course of the University of Oxford 2023 3 c ii Solution 2026-10-25
In fact , so the quotient module is zero. This requires an argument using left ideals: a left ideal is not generally closed under multiplication on the right.
Write , , so that . The commutator product rule givesBoth and lie in , so their differencebelongs to . Multiplying on the left and subtracting another known element of the left ideal givesBecause the scalar is invertible in , it follows that , and hence . Therefore , giving . We concludeThus the answer is yes for every . All ideal operations in the proof use left multiplication. In particular, simply replacing by the commutative ideal of the associated graded ring would miss the lower-order consequences that force .
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2010 Paper 2 Section B B7 Solution 2026-10-20
Writing , where and , the canonical commutation relation givesConsequently and . If were nonzero, this commutator would make it an energy eigenstate with energy , contradicting the lowest-energy property. Therefore .
The commutator product rule and induction giveActing on the vacuum and shifting the sum then shows that the unnormalized bosonic coherent state satisfies .
The displayed series lacks its wavefunction normalization factor. Since , its squared norm is . The normalized coherent state needed for the stated expectation values isUse , , and . For , ,The displacement changes the mean position but not its ground-state uncertainty. Unnormalized bras and kets give the same physical expectation values only after division by their squared norm.
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2011 Paper 2 Section A 3 Solution 2026-10-20
The canonical commutation relation is . Applying the commutator product rule on a common operator domain,Equivalently, applying both sides to a twice differentiable test function gives , the same result.
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 1 Section B B7 Solution 2026-10-20
Differentiating the expectation value and using and givesThe second term means explicit operator time dependence, distinct from the state's evolution.
The commutator product rule follows by adding and subtracting :For the mathematical induction step, let and use . The case is immediate. If , thenThus the claimed identity holds for every positive integer. Commutation of with is not needed for this particular step. This is the central-commutator differentiation rule. Termwise application to a convergent power series, on a common domain where the operations are justified, gives
For position and momentum, . Hence , and . Substitution gives Ehrenfest theorem:The mean momentum changes by the mean force. It does not follow for a general nonlinear Potential energy that : a closed classical trajectory for the mean position requires an additional condition, such as a quadratic Potential energy or a sufficiently localized wave packet.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2020 2 a Solution 2026-10-25
Write and . The nonzero canonical commutation relations arewith cross-species brackets zero. The commutator product rule givesLinearity of the commutator now yields, for the real coefficient ,Strictly, the printed contains an infinite constant in continuum Fock space. Work first with finitely many modes, or replace it by its normal ordering . Their difference is a constant, so every displayed commutator and every conjugation below is unchanged. The latter convention fixes the vacuum state phase without an infinite phase ambiguity.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2022 3 a Solution 2026-10-25
For arbitrary linear operators, expansion of the anticommutators givesNow use the commutator product rule , with , twice. The result isNo grading assumption is needed for these algebraic identities.
For the Dirac field, supplement the supplied equal-time canonical anticommutation relations with . Define the fermion number density . In the preceding identity take , , , and sum over . Only its first and last anticommutators survive, givingThis is an identity of operator-valued distributions. Point splitting, or smearing with test functions, gives a precise meaning to coincident bilinears. Normal ordering only subtracts a constant from the density and does not alter this commutator.
From and the commutator product rule,Consequently, if ,Thus the creation operator raises the energy eigenvalue by , and the annihilation operator lowers it by , provided the resulting vector is nonzero. The zero vector is not an eigenstate; in particular the ground state will be annihilated by . The displayed operator identity holds even in that case.
On a smooth wavefunction , the position operator and momentum operator giveThus the canonical commutation relation is . Since and are self-adjoint operators and are real, the adjoint operator of isExpanding the products in the stated order is essential:Subtracting gives . These identities initially hold on smooth rapidly decaying functions, which contain the quantum harmonic oscillator energy eigenstates used below.
The factorization also proves a lower bound: for a normalized energy eigenstate ,Therefore . The commutator product rule, applied to , givesSo a nonzero application of the creation operator raises the energy eigenvalue by , while the annihilation operator lowers it by the same amount.
Begin with any energy eigenstate, whose existence is assumed. Repeated lowering must terminate: otherwise it would eventually produce a nonzero energy eigenstate below , contradicting the lower bound. More explicitly, if with integer and , the first lowering steps are nonzero. If , one further step is also nonzero by its positive squared norm and has energy , an impossibility. Thus and the last state satisfies . This provesEvery level exists as well: , so repeated raising from never vanishes. The same factorization bounds the energy expectation of any normalized state in the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator form domain below by , proving that the terminated state really is a ground state.
To find its probability density, solve the first-order equationIts solutions are . With , the supplied Gaussian integral givesTaking fixes an irrelevant global phase. ConsequentlyThe ground-state energy is positive even though the potential minimum is zero: it is the oscillator's zero-point energy.
The given angular momentum commutation relations imply and . By linearity,Similarly,For the remaining commutators, the commutator product rule gives, for each ,The last sum vanishes because the Levi-Civita symbol is antisymmetric under , while is symmetric. Taking and then linear combinations with proves
If and , these identities yieldOne must also prove that this candidate eigenstate is nonzero. Since the angular momentum operators are self-adjoint operators, , and expanding the product givesThereforeThis is nonnegative and, by the assumed inequality, nonzero. Hence it is positive. The angular momentum raising operator really does produce a nonzero simultaneous eigenstate with the claimed eigenvalues.
To prove that raising terminates, let be any nonzero state reached after steps, with projection . Positivity givesso . Thus the sequence cannot remain nonzero for every integer . At its last nonzero state , one has , and the squared norm identity givesUnder the paper's initial inequality the first step is nonzero, so in fact . An angular momentum ladder endpoint must therefore be reached: bounded projection follows from positivity, and the final raising norm fixes the total angular momentum eigenvalue. Writing , the complementary product gives , also showing .
First apply the commutator product rule in the form :Repeated use of the commutator product rule gives, for ,This is the commutator with powers of an eigenoperator. For , the commutator with the identity operator is zero, agreeing with the formula.
Each is unchanged by taking the adjoint operator, so in this algebra. Taking the adjoint of a commutator yields . By antisymmetry,In particular, each creation operator raises the number operator eigenvalue by one, and each annihilation operator lowers it by one.
From part (a), and . The commutator product rule givesConsequentlyEach term in transfers one excitation between the two modes, preserving the total number operator eigenvalue. This is an instance of the oscillator bilinear commutator; every number operator eigenspace is an invariant subspace of .
The common Fock vacuum obeys . Put . By the commutator product rule and part (a),Moving through therefore givesDividing by provesThe constructed number state is nonzero: the relation follows from and . Commuting different modes and successively moving each creation operator across the inner product yieldsThus the given factorial denominator also gives unit norm, as expected for a number state.
The orbital angular momentum generates rotations in the plane. The canonical commutation relations giveUse the commutator product rule . Since different coordinates commute,Thus, for arbitrary positive angular frequencies,At , this becomes . The rotational symmetry of the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator allows a basis of simultaneous energy eigenstates and orbital angular momentum eigenstates.