Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 75 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Put and . The Jordan–Wigner transformation is , and . Since , and , adjacent bonds becomeThus, apart from the end bond,The end bond contains the global fermion parity and sets the sector-dependent periodic or antiperiodic fermion modes. It contributes an order-one boundary term, which is negligible for the thermodynamic energy density; it is not identically zero for the finite spin chain.
Choose the discrete Fourier transform convention . Hopping gives . Opposite-momentum pairing gives , using the canonical anticommutation relations to antisymmetrize the coefficient. ThereforeFor the Ising-chain Nambu spinor , expansion ofrecovers every term: the diagonal contributes , and the two off-diagonal entries supply the pairing. Since , the constant is . Reversing the Fourier sign changes the pairing convention; the specified sign makes the displayed matrix agree directly.