Energy gap 2026-10-20
An energy gap is a positive separation between a ground-state sector and its lowest excitations, with the sector, momentum and thermodynamic limit specified. A local positive curvature of an auxiliary field is not alone a proof of a dynamical gap: the kinetic terms and conjugate variables determine the excitation poles.
For the XY model with equal ferromagnetic exchange in its plane and field term , rotate the local quantization axis along the Classical spin. The Holstein–Primakoff transformation gives the number coefficient and anomalous coefficient with one transverse-axis convention. Bosonic Bogoliubov diagonalization gives and field gap . A nonzero field stabilizes every oscillator mode.
Use the unitary discrete Fourier transformThe transformed operators obey . The hopping terms contribute to the number coefficient. In the pairing sum, the odd sine part cancels between and . ThuswhereThe factor one half in the full momentum sum avoids counting an anomalous pair twice. For , for every allowed momentum. SetReal even angles ensure consistency between opposite momenta, and preserves the canonical commutation relations. The anomalous coefficient becomes . Normal ordering then giveswithThe field-polarized planar ferromagnetic spin wave has energy gap . The momenta run over the whole Brillouin zone once, including the self-inverse momenta and, for even , ; these use single-mode squeezing rather than introducing an extra independent partner.
The zero-field case has a zero-mode obstruction to bosonic Bogoliubov diagonalization. Its nonzero-momentum modes have , but , so no finite squeezing angle exists for the uniform mode. With , its Hamiltonian is , not an identically zero oscillator. For example, its matrix element between the vacuum and the two-boson number state is , whereas would vanish. Consequently the requested oscillator diagonalization is literal for nonzero field; at zero field treat the collective orientation separately or introduce a field regulator before taking a limit.
The two-mode approximation for a Bose gas retains the real localized orbitals:It is valid when the lowest doublet is well separated from higher energy levels, and the temperature and interaction-induced changes of the orbitals are small on that separation. More explicitly, if is the energy gap to discarded orbitals, sufficient low-energy conditions are , where . A deep double-well potential suppresses interwell interaction overlaps. Large alone does not justify the truncation: increasing at fixed coupling can violate the interaction condition.
Let and use the even and odd eigenfunctions to evaluate the projected one-particle Hamiltonian operator:ThusThe same quantum tunnelling matrix element is . Reflection symmetry makes . Neglecting mixed contact interaction integrals leavesThe last step is the normal-ordered boson pair count, following from the canonical commutation relation. Consequently the two-site Bose-Hubbard model has precisely the requested coefficientsandHere is the coefficient obtained by rewriting the fixed-particle number Hamiltonian operator, rather than an independently prescribed thermodynamic chemical potential. Adding a reservoir term would replace it by .
The negligible-overlap instruction applies to the mixed contact interaction integrals while the small quantum tunnelling matrix element is retained. Exactly disjoint smooth orbitals for a local would also give ; setting every overlap-related matrix element identically to zero would discard the physical splitting one is trying to describe.
Use the unitary discrete Fourier transform , where . Thenwith and . The factor accounts for the duplicated pair in the full momentum sum.
Make a bosonic Bogoliubov transformation . Its coefficients preserve the canonical commutation relation because . The coefficient of the pair term vanishes when . ThusThe dropped constant is in addition to the classical ground-state energy. Since , at every , so the bosonic Bogoliubov diagonalization is stable. The minimum occurs at and gives the energy gap . In the isotropic limit the pair coefficient vanishes and the familiar quadratic small- ferromagnetic dispersion relation is recovered.
Use the unitary discrete Fourier transformThe transformed operators obey . The hopping terms contribute to the number coefficient. In the pairing sum, the odd sine part cancels between and . ThuswhereThe factor one half in the full momentum sum avoids counting an anomalous pair twice. For , for every allowed momentum. SetReal even angles ensure consistency between opposite momenta, and preserves the canonical commutation relations. The anomalous coefficient becomes . Normal ordering then giveswithThe field-polarized planar ferromagnetic spin wave has energy gap . The momenta run over the whole Brillouin zone once, including the self-inverse momenta and, for even , ; these use single-mode squeezing rather than introducing an extra independent partner.
The zero-field case has a zero-mode obstruction to bosonic Bogoliubov diagonalization. Its nonzero-momentum modes have , but , so no finite squeezing angle exists for the uniform mode. With , its Hamiltonian is , not an identically zero oscillator. For example, its matrix element between the vacuum and the two-boson number state is , whereas would vanish. Consequently the requested oscillator diagonalization is literal for nonzero field; at zero field treat the collective orientation separately or introduce a field regulator before taking a limit.
Let and . Since , the continuum minimum of the dispersion relation isFor , the energy gap closes at a positive , at wave vector . Below it, the quadratic expansion about the polarized state has a negative mode and is no longer a stable ground state approximation; higher-order terms and a different ordered reference state are needed.
Two qualifications are required by the actual assumptions. First, is permitted, in which case ; it is a concrete counterexample to the printed strict inequality . Second, a finite ring only has discrete momenta. Its finite-ring spin-wave threshold with antisymmetric exchange isThis approaches in the thermodynamic limit and equals it when is allowed. For example, and give , since the maximum of is one. Thus the continuum formula and its positive threshold require the large-ring interpretation. The two symmetry-related polarized ground states already have equal exact energy; the calculated energy gap refers to excitations about one chosen orientation.
Two-mode approximation for a Bose gas 2026-10-25
Project a quantized field onto two low-energy orbitals. A sufficient regime has temperature, hopping and interaction shifts small compared with the energy gap to discarded orbitals. Small interwell contact interaction integrals can then be neglected while retaining a small quantum tunnelling matrix element. The projected field's operator commutator is the two-mode projection operator kernel, rather than a complete spatial Dirac delta function.