In the position representation, the momentum operators are and . Thereforesince at fixed radius. Solving the eigenvalue equation on the circle and imposing periodicity givesTheir normalization uses the angular measure on .
For the half-ring sine-squared angular state, write . The stated wavefunction is normalized because . It and its first derivative match continuously to zero at the boundaries, so the integrations by parts have no boundary contributions. The angular momentum expectation and second moment areHence . The jumps in the second derivative do not invalidate this result: the periodic wavefunction has a square-integrable second derivative and a continuous first derivative.
The probability of is the squared projection onto :The odd sine term gives the imaginary overlap; a real wavefunction need not have zero probability of nonzero angular momentum. Its positive and negative angular-momentum probabilities are equal.[ref]
Quantum Mechanics by David Tong. Chapters 3–4: operator expectation values, angular momentum and eigenstate projections
A real state confined to half a ring has zero mean angular momentum and symmetric nonzero measurement probabilities
. Source. Details. Use a shallow, homogeneous active upper layer of mean thickness and mass density , over a much deeper, effectively stationary layer with mass density . The Boussinesq approximation keeps the small density contrast only in buoyancy, giving reduced gravity . The hydrostatic approximation and shallow-water approximation make horizontal velocity nearly depth independent and turn the interface slope into the horizontal force .
Linearize about rest and uniform , with , neglecting products of perturbations and convective acceleration. The f-plane approximation sets the Coriolis parameter to constant . Neglect wind forcing, viscosity, entrainment and bottom drag. The two horizontal momentum equations then balance local acceleration, the Coriolis force and the pressure gradient. The signs and follow from eastward and northward coordinates.
The thickness equation is the linearized conservation of mass law: horizontal divergence decreases , while horizontal convergence increases it. Here is active-layer thickness, not total ocean depth, and rather than gives the restoring force because the motion principally displaces the thermocline.
Put and . With and complex dependence , the northward momentum equation and continuity equation giveThus . Write the signed phase velocity as , so . The eastward momentum equation is the transverse geostrophic balance . HenceThe decaying sign is selected by which side of contains the ocean. For an eastern boundary the ocean occupies , so decay offshore requires . Consequently the Kelvin wave moves northwards in the northern hemisphere and southwards in the southern hemisphere, with the coast respectively on its right and left. The positive offshore decay length isThe sign of reverses the propagation direction and the sign of relative to , but not the speed or offshore decay length. The real physical fields are the real parts of the complex solution. At the equator itself this local f-plane coastal solution loses its finite trapping scale.
Specify what “onset” means. I would distinguish the first local, perhaps short-lived subduction event from persistent, self-sustaining recycling in a connected global network of tectonic plates. Modern plate tectonics combines relatively rigid moving lithosphere, localized boundary deformation, seafloor spreading and sustained convergence. A sinking drip or a single imposed descending sheet is not sufficient evidence of that global regime. Different processes may become established at different times, so a transition interval may be a better hypothesis than an instantaneous worldwide switch.
Construct competing physical models. Solve conservation of mass, momentum and energy for evolving mantle convection and lithosphere, including temperature- and stress-dependent rheology, brittle yielding, plastic deformation, melting, compositional buoyancy and relevant phase changes. Use geodynamic modelling to compare a stagnant lid, episodic overturn, drip-dominated recycling and a sustained mobile lid. In a simplified incompressible creeping-flow framework,Here is velocity, pressure, effective viscosity, the strain-rate tensor, density, gravitational acceleration, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, radiogenic power per unit mass, and dissipative heating per unit volume. These equations are a framework: compressibility, latent heat and chemical transport may require additional terms. A simple yield stress law represents cohesion , friction coefficient and pore pressure , illustrating why hydration and interface weakening can change the outcome.
Vary the early-planet controls rather than assuming the answer. Explore plausible initial mantle potential temperature, radiogenic heating, crust thickness and composition, water inventory, grain-size evolution, surface temperature, and boundary strength. Hotter mantle lowers viscosity but can produce thicker buoyant basaltic crust; it does not automatically make sustained subduction easier. A cold strong plate can transmit slab pull yet resist bending and initiation. Water weakening of rocks, melt-induced weakening, inherited faults and mechanically weak sediments can change this balance. Test proposed triggers such as mantle plume impingement or gravitational instability without presupposing an established global plate-force system.
Useful diagnostics include the Rayleigh number,with thermal expansion coefficient , layer thickness , thermal diffusivity and temperature contrast , together with surface mobility, the localization of deformation, plate longevity, melt production and material recycling. A large Rayleigh number establishes vigorous convection under suitable conditions, not necessarily a mobile lid. A convincing model should sustain one-sided subduction, connected boundary evolution and seafloor spreading after any artificial trigger is removed. Compare initiation thresholds with continuation thresholds: hysteresis can allow an established regime to persist under conditions in which it would not spontaneously start.
As an example of the type of experiment, three-dimensional models have tested mantle plume-induced subduction initiation, finding sensitivity to plate buoyancy, magmatic weakening and hydration of the interface. The scientific use of such results here is to identify a feasible mechanism and its predicted signatures, not to adopt their success as a direct measurement of an ancient onset date.[ref]
Plate tectonics on the Earth triggered by plume-induced subduction initiation by Taras V. Gerya and others. 2015, modeled initiation conditions and alternative dripping behavior
Connect a model regime to a date through independent evidence. Couple the experiments to candidate planetary cooling histories, then predict observable pressure-temperature-time paths, magmatic compositions, deformation patterns and recycling rates for each regime. If independently dated rocks constrain a thermal or compositional state, ask which regimes can reproduce that state and the observed geological associations. Repeat over uncertain initial conditions and constitutive parameters, check numerical resolution, and compare two- and three-dimensional results where geometry matters. Models that prescribe a descending slab, fix plate velocity, or insert a weak boundary may be excellent forward models of a working subduction zone but do not demonstrate spontaneous initiation.
The result is a conditional statement: persistent plate tectonics is physically feasible under a range of conditions, and dated geological observations may favor that range at a particular time. Uncertain cooling histories, several feasible regimes and uncertain rheology prevent numerical feasibility alone from dating onset. The strongest constraint comes when the same parameter range explains multiple independently dated observations and alternative regimes fail those tests.
Autonomy gives conservation of energy, while the cyclic coordinate give conserved momenta:Here is the angular momentum along the body's symmetry axis, and is its component along the fixed vertical. The time symmetry corresponds to , not to an additional angle momentum.
With and , solveInsert this and the conserved spin rate into the energy equation, multiply by , and isolate :
For a fixed nonvertical angle, letThe energy is . A constant angle in requires both and , by the reduced Euler-Lagrange equation and . Sinceboth and , with .
The source's unqualified final sentence omits the nonvertical restriction. A vertical axis has , where the displayed reduction divides by zero and the common root need not be interior. For example, the stationary upright top has , , andIts only repeated root is , so it has no common root with its derivative in . Thus the interior double-root conclusion holds for nonvertical steady precession. The vertical configurations require separate endpoint treatment. This is nonvertical qualification in the steady-top double-root condition.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2012 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Different measurements reveal different aspects of electronic band structure; a convincing determination combines their constraints.
Angle-resolved photoemission. In angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, photons of known energy eject occupied electrons. Measuring their kinetic energy and emission angle reconstructs binding energy and the component of crystal momentum parallel to the surface:Here is the sample work function when kinetic energy is referenced to the nearby vacuum; an analyzer energy scale requires its own work-function calibration. Momentum is conserved modulo a surface reciprocal lattice vector, neglecting photon momentum. Tracking the peaks maps occupied dispersion relations and the Fermi surface. The measured intensity also contains the matrix element, the Fermi-Dirac distribution and the spectral function, so an absent bright feature does not establish an absent band. For a three-dimensional solid, the perpendicular momentum requires a final-state model. Inverse photoemission spectroscopy probes unoccupied states by injecting electrons and detecting emitted photons.
Optical spectroscopy. Photon absorption and ellipsometry measure interband transitions, optical selection rules and the complex dielectric response. Because optical photon momentum is small on the scale of the Brillouin zone, direct transitions approximately preserve crystal momentum. Their onset constrains a direct band gap; a threshold involving a phonon can reveal an indirect band gap. Peak positions constrain energy differences between bands, but the response also depends on the joint density of states and optical matrix elements, so it does not uniquely determine every .
Quantum oscillations and cyclotron resonance. In clean samples at low temperature, the de Haas-van Alphen effect measures oscillations in magnetization and the Shubnikov-de Haas effect measures oscillations in electrical resistivity as the inverse magnetic field is varied. Their period in inverse magnetic field is , where Onsager quantization relates to an extremal Fermi-surface area perpendicular to the field:Rotating the magnetic field maps the geometry of extremal orbits. The thermal damping determines the cyclotron effective mass,with the appropriate magnitude for a hole orbit. Cyclotron resonance supplies the corresponding dynamical mass through . These are detailed probes near the Fermi level, rather than measurements of all occupied bands. Diffraction supplies the reciprocal lattice needed to label the measured momenta, but diffraction by itself is not a measurement of electronic dispersion.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2013 1 b Solution 2026-10-18
In the nearly-free electron model, the free parabola is coupled to copies shifted by reciprocal wavevectors . The first degeneracy is at , where the counterpropagating waves have equal kinetic energy. Retaining their coupling gives two branchesConsequently a nonzero Fourier component opens a gap at the zone edge. The dispersion remains approximately free-electron-like away from the crossing, but the branches avoid crossing and their slopes flatten at the band edges. The horizontal axis can be labeled either wavevector , with edges at , or physical momentum , with edges at .
At the edge, an appropriate choice of spatial origin makes real. The eigenstates are equal-weight standing waves. In a normalization length containing an integer number of periods, representative real forms areThey come from the sum and difference of and , up to a global phase. Their densities have maxima and nodes displaced by relative to one another. Both wavefunctions change sign under translation by , as required by their zone-edge Bloch phase, while their densities are lattice-periodic.
For the figure's choice with , the potential minima occur at . The cosine state puts density there and is lower, while the sine state puts a node there and is higher. Reversing the potential's phase relative to the coordinate origin exchanges that assignment. Since the question supplies only the spatial period, it fixes the zone-edge locations and qualitative standing-wave structure, but not a numerical gap or an origin-independent choice of which drawn sine/cosine is lower.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2013 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A normal Fermi liquid describes an interacting fermion system whose low-energy excitations remain continuously connected to adding particles to or removing particles from a Fermi gas. The elementary long-lived excitation is a Landau quasiparticle: adding a particle also changes the surrounding many-body state. Its energy, velocity and interactions are renormalized, even though its electric charge and spin remain those appropriate to the excitation.
Near an isotropic Fermi surface,Residual interactions make the quasiparticle energy depend on the occupations of other quasiparticles, expressed by the Landau quasiparticle energy functional. Its angular components give the Landau parameters controlling density and spin responses. Thus the successful particle picture does not mean that interactions have become zero.
Pauli blocking restricts the final states available for low-energy collisions. In an ordinary three-dimensional Fermi liquid with regular interactions, a representative decay law isAt , the width vanishes faster than , so an excitation becomes increasingly sharp as it approaches the Fermi surface. Its coherent spectral weight is the quasiparticle residue , and the physical electron occupation has a discontinuity of height at zero temperature. Incoherent spectral weight accounts for the remainder. The quasiparticle occupations themselves obey a Fermi-Dirac distribution.
Several leading thermodynamic signatures retain their gas-like form but have interaction-dependent coefficients. In particular,for an isotropic spin-one-half model, with the spin-summed quasiparticle density of states per volume. effective mass changes , while the dimensionless interaction parameters separately change the spin susceptibility and compressibility. Collisionless collective density motion can propagate as zero sound, distinct from the single-particle excitations.
The quasiparticle scattering rate often underlies a low-temperature contribution to metallic electrical resistivity, but a mechanism relaxing electrical electric current is needed. In a clean Galilean-invariant continuum, electron-electron collisions conserve total momentum and do not alone give a finite dc electrical resistivity. Crystal Umklapp scattering or other current-relaxing processes change that conclusion.
Normal liquid helium-3 and many metals motivate the Fermi-liquid framework. Pairing, magnetic ordering or other transitions can reconstruct the low-energy states. Generic interacting one-dimensional fermion systems instead form a different low-energy state, so the three-dimensional quasiparticle conclusions should not simply be transferred to a chain.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2014 2 b Solution 2026-10-18
The Drude model treats mobile electric charge carriers as independent particles with density , signed electric charge , isotropic mass , and momentum relaxation time . In uniform steady fields,At zero magnetic field the drift velocity is , giving electrical conductivity and electrical resistivityThe electrical conductivity is positive for either carrier sign. Scattering dissipates directed drift energy into the environment; a finite steady electric current is compatible with a short-lived drift momentum. The independent-carrier relaxation-time approximation omits detailed band anisotropy, quantum interference and microscopic collision correlations.
For electric current along and magnetic field , the magnetic force deflects carriers toward one side of the sample. electric charge accumulates until a transverse Hall field cancels that force in an open transverse circuit. With , , soElectrons have negative in this convention, whereas positive carriers have positive . For a strip of thickness along , the magnitude of the Hall electric potential difference across its width is . Thus Hall measurements determine carrier sign and, within this one-carrier model, density, while combining with determines charge carrier mobility .
Keeping both in-plane electric current components, the resistivity tensor isThis fixes the off-diagonal sign convention and shows that inversion is not componentwise reciprocation. Under the Hall boundary condition , the ideal one-carrier isotropic model gives , independent of magnetic field: there is no ordinary longitudinal magnetoresistance in this minimal model. Multiple carrier types or anisotropic bands can change both this conclusion and the simple inference. Their electrical conductivity must be added before inverting to obtain the total electrical resistivity.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2014 3 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Diagonalization and conventions. The spin-dependent part is . For a Hermitian Hamiltonian is real; the supplied lower-band spinor uses the convention , which will be adopted below. The squared spin matrix is . Hence the two ordered energies areIn the plane, let and . ThenIf , use to retain the energy ordering, and interchange the spin directions assigned below. This is an isotropic Rashba effect; has units of inverse length, whereas has units of energy times length.
Band minima. Define and . Completing the square givesAlong , the radial coordinate is , so the lower branch has two minima:In the full plane these are points on a circle of minima . Both branches meet at , . Their ordered energy curves contain : the lower curve descends from the crossing on either side, while the upper rises. Treating them as globally labeled smooth spin branches without switching labels across would obscure the lower-band minima.
Occupied regions and Fermi contours. At zero temperature each spin-split eigenstate with energy below is occupied. PutFor , . The lower-band roots are and , while the upper band is entirely empty. Thus the central disk is unoccupied, the annulus is singly occupied, and the exterior is unoccupied. Both Fermi circles belong to the lower band; there is no doubly occupied region.
At , the lower band is occupied for , giving a singly occupied disk with outer Fermi circle at . The two bands also meet the Fermi energy at the origin. That isolated degenerate point is not a finite doubly occupied disk, and occupation exactly at the Fermi energy is a boundary convention of zero area. Outside the outer circle the states are empty.
For , . The lower branch has outer radius , while the upper branch has inner radius . The disk is doubly occupied, with one state in each band at every momentum. The annulus is singly occupied, in the lower band only, and the exterior is unoccupied. These are the Fermi contours of an isotropic Rashba band; double occupancy here refers to two orthogonal spinor states at the same momentum, not two electrons occupying one identical quantum state.
Rashba dispersion and occupied momentum regions below, at and above the band crossing
. Details. Inferring the splitting. Above the crossing, the two positive radii differ by :The minimum radius is therefore . It is the difference of the measured radii that is required for ; below the crossing the two lower-band radii instead add to .
Spinors and spin direction. Write , which has for . An orthogonal normalized partner to the supplied lower-band state isIndeed . Direct multiplication by the spin matrix gives eigenvalues and for and , respectively, so orthogonality has selected the other band rather than merely another arbitrary spin basis.
For a normalized spinor , the Pauli expectation values are . Consequently the Rashba spin texture isThe spin lies in the plane and is perpendicular to momentum. On the outer circle , which belongs to , it points clockwise as viewed from ; at it points along . On the inner circle , belonging to , it points counterclockwise; at it points along . Opposite momenta have opposite spins, consistent with time-reversal symmetry. At the origin the eigenstates are degenerate and no unique spin orientation is defined.
Opposite tangential spin textures on the outer lower-band and inner upper-band Fermi circles
. Details. Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2016 3 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
mass as band curvature. In a periodic potential, a weakly forced electron is usefully described by a wave packet confined to one energy band. Its group velocity isDifferentiating the velocity givesThis effective-mass tensor describes the band response, not a change of the electron's bare rest mass. Along a principal direction, a steep upward curvature gives a small positive mass and a flatter curvature a larger one. Near a band maximum the electron curvature and effective mass are negative; the corresponding missing-electron description uses positive electron hole masses. Anisotropy produces distinct principal masses, and strong nonparabolicity makes them momentum dependent. The single-band semiclassical description assumes fields weak and slowly varying enough to avoid substantial interband transitions.
Lattice symmetry and Bloch's theorem. Use the active spatial translation operator . A lattice-periodic scalar potential satisfies , while the kinetic term is translation invariant. Therefore . The lattice translations also commute with one another, so they can be diagonalized simultaneously with , including within a degenerate energy subspace.
For a common eigenstate, write . Unitarity gives , and the group law gives . On primitive Bravais vectors , choose . Every lattice vector is an integer combination of these generators, henceThe vector is defined modulo a reciprocal lattice vector. The band index labels the different energy eigenstates with the same translation character. Define . The phase factors cancel under a lattice translation, proving Bloch's theorem in its usual form:This is the Translation-character proof of Bloch theorem; the commutator guarantees a basis of such states, even when an arbitrary superposition of different translation characters is not itself a translation eigenstate.
Periodic Hamiltonian. Acting once with momentum gives . Applying it again and cancelling the common plane-wave factor yieldsThe Bloch Hamiltonian acts on lattice-periodic functions in a unit cell. Expanding its square separates a zero-momentum Hamiltonian, a term linear in and an identity term quadratic in .
Expansion about the zone centre. Let , , and normalize all these states using a unit-cell inner product. For the real scalar Hamiltonian in the question, a nondegenerate zone-centre eigenfunction can be chosen real. Thenbecause opposite unit-cell faces cancel. Equivalently, time-reversal symmetry forbids a nonzero electric current in this nondegenerate spinless state. This explains why no linear energy term appears; it should not simply be omitted without a symmetry or extremum argument.
The first-order energy shift is therefore . In the second-order sum the quadratic term is proportional to the identity and has no off-diagonal matrix elements. Only the linear momentum vertex contributes. Second-order nondegenerate perturbation theory gives the momentum matrix-element expansion of band energyHermitian operator makes the two reciprocal matrix elements complex conjugates. All other periodic eigenstates at enter the sum. The remainder is even because time-reversal symmetry gives near this isolated state. At a degeneracy the denominators signal the need for degenerate perturbation theory instead.
mass ratio and the printed formula. Write . Differentiating the quadratic energy yieldsFor a specified unit direction , the resulting scalar mass ratio isIn an isotropic three-dimensional band, averaging equivalent directions givesCoupling to lower bands contributes positively to inverse mass; coupling to higher bands contributes negatively. Their signs and matrix elements determine the actual curvature.
The original PDF prints . Taken literally as a three-dimensional Laplacian, this misses a factor of three for an isotropic scalar mass. The correct identities areThe printed expression would return even for the free dispersion . It is correct in one dimension, or if its second derivative is interpreted directionally. For completeness, its literal three-dimensional trace ratio would instead be ; that is the trace of the dimensionless inverse-mass tensor, not the usual scalar .
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2016 4 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Relaxation-time model. The Drude model treats mobile charge carriers as independent particles accelerated by the Lorentz force between scattering events. Collisions randomize the drift momentum toward local equilibrium and are represented by a uniform, field-independent momentum relaxation time. For the present calculation the carrier density, isotropic mass and relaxation time are fixed, the fields are uniform and stationary, and quantum orbital quantization and intercarrier correlations are neglected. The steady drift velocity obeysHere is the number of carriers of that species per unit volume, their signed charge, their inertial or isotropic band mass, the momentum relaxation time, and their single-species electrical conductivity at zero field.
One-carrier tensor. With and , solving for the electric field givesSince and ,Thus the resistivity tensor, defined by , isIts off-diagonal signs follow from the stated axes and signed . For zero transverse electric current, is the Hall electrical resistivity; reversing charge reverses it. The single-species longitudinal electrical resistivity is independent of in this ideal isotropic model.
Adding electrons and electron holes. Let both species have density and charges , with . The stipulated equal zero-field electrical conductivity means equal positive charge carrier mobility , even if their masses and momentum relaxation times separately differ. Put and . Inverting each electrical resistivity matrix givesBoth species experience the same electric field, so their electric current densities add. Therefore it is their conductivity tensors, rather than their resistivity tensors, that must be summed. The Hall parts cancel andThis is compensated two-carrier magnetoresistance. Although the net Hall field vanishes, each carrier species is bent in its own direction; maintaining the total longitudinal electric current requires an increasing longitudinal field. Equal carrier numbers alone do not ensure zero Hall response if charge carrier mobilities differ; both equalities given here are used.
Large-field limit and quantum oscillations. Expanding the exact diagonal entry,For ,Here the last equality applies to either species with its own mass and transport time; the stipulated charge carrier mobilities give the same threshold. This is the classical strong-field condition : carriers turn substantially before their drift momentum relaxes.
Observable quantum oscillations additionally require sufficiently sharp Landau levels and a sufficiently cold Fermi-Dirac distribution, approximatelyWhen , the disorder field scale is comparable to the onset scale for large classical magnetoresistance. The thermal condition can demand a much larger field, and when even the disorder criterion is stronger. The quantitative damping factors in Q2(c) show that these are crossover scales rather than sharp visibility boundaries. A large smooth magnetoresistance therefore does not itself demonstrate Landau level; it can exist while thermal smearing suppresses oscillations. Conversely, the asymptotic condition is stronger than merely reaching unity, so there is no universal ordering of the two experimental onset fields without temperatures and lifetime information.
Scaling function. The material's actual zero-field longitudinal electrical resistivity is . Dividing the exact answer by this value givesThe assumption that stays constant is essential to eliminating further temperature-dependent parameters. is a dimensionful scaling variable; is its dimensionless version. The corresponding fractional increase is .
What the supplied data test. In the original PDF's left panel, the field dependence is strongly temperature dependent. In the right panel, plotting the fractional magnetoresistance against the squared rescaled field makes the displayed 125, 150, 175, 200 and 225 K curves collapse approximately onto one straight line, over the field intervals where they overlap. This supports the proposed one-parameter scaling and, on that range, the quadratic field law. The 100 K curve does not collapse: it bends away and has a different slope in the rescaled plot. The indicated scaling is therefore supported for the displayed 125–225 K data, not for the entire displayed temperature range. The graph alone does not locate a sharp transition between 100 and 125 K or establish behavior above 225 K.
This empirical collapse is Kohler's rule. It is consistent with a common temperature-dependent charge carrier mobility or relaxation scale and a fixed carrier population; it is not a unique proof of exact compensation or of one microscopic scattering mechanism. A change in relative scattering times, carrier population or Fermi-surface structure could spoil the collapse, and this figure alone does not select the cause of the 100 K departure.
There is a factor-of-two normalization convention in the printed text. The introduced for each species gives , whereas the final paragraph calls “.” If denotes the experimentally measured zero-field electrical resistivity, the consistent slope isIf one instead keeps the literal single-species definition , the same model has . The choice rescales and offsets the axes by temperature-independent constants, so it does not change which temperature curves collapse, but it must be resolved before inferring a carrier density from the slope.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2017 2 b Solution 2026-10-18
A primitive cell containing two atoms has two independent displacement coordinates for each chosen polarization. Their coupled normal modes split into an acoustic phonon branch, which translates the cell at long wavelength, and an optical phonon branch, which moves its constituents against one another. The nonzero restoring force for the relative displacement gives a nonzero optical frequency even at the zone centre.
For an explicit scalar model, take alternating masses , equal nearest-neighbor spring constant , and cell length . If are the displacements of the two atoms in cell , Newton's second law givesA mode proportional to has a nonzero amplitude only when the two-by-two dynamical determinant vanishes. The resulting diatomic-chain dispersion relation with equal springs, in this cell-length convention, isThe minus branch is acoustic, with and a linear small- dispersion. The plus branch is optical, withAt , the acoustic eigenvector has . The optical eigenvector instead satisfies : its cell centre of mass stays fixed while the atoms move oppositely. At the zone edge, for , the frequencies are and , giving a gap between branches. Both slopes vanish there. The dispersion and displacement patterns are shown in the preceding original figure.
If the two atoms carry opposite effective charges, the relative motion creates an oscillating electric dipole moment, enabling infrared absorption by long-wavelength light. The photon momentum is tiny compared with the zone size, so ordinary optical absorption principally excites modes close to . Raman activity instead depends on modulation of polarizability; the name optical does not imply that every such mode is infrared active. Three-dimensional crystals have separate longitudinal and transverse polarizations, and long-range Coulomb forces can split their optical frequencies. A monatomic primitive cell has no internal relative coordinate and therefore no optical branch of this type.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2017 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A normal Fermi liquid has interacting fermions whose low-energy excitations can be followed continuously from those of a Fermi gas, provided no phase transition destroys that correspondence. A Landau quasiparticle is a particle together with the surrounding many-body response. It has the appropriate charge and spin, a renormalized dispersion and a long lifetime close to the Fermi surface. Interactions remain in both the quasiparticle parameters and the interactions between quasiparticles; they have not been discarded.
Near an isotropic Fermi surface,The last relation defines the local isotropic Fermi-liquid effective mass. The Landau quasiparticle energy functional expresses how changing occupations shifts other quasiparticle energies:with normalization of the sum absorbed into . Its angular components give Landau parameters describing collective density and spin response.
The Pauli exclusion principle severely restricts the available final states for low-energy collisions. In an ordinary three-dimensional Fermi liquid with regular interactions,At zero temperature the decay width decreases faster than , making quasiparticles increasingly sharp near the Fermi surface. Their coherent spectral weight is the quasiparticle residue , and the true electron momentum distribution has a discontinuity of height at zero temperature. The rest of the spectral weight is incoherent. The quasiparticle occupation itself still follows a Fermi-Dirac distribution.
The low-temperature electronic heat capacity is linear, , where is the spin-summed quasiparticle density of states. In an isotropic spin-one-half model, the uniform spin susceptibility and compressibility take the formsThus enhanced effective mass and residual interactions can separately change observable responses. The familiar electrical resistivity requires a mechanism relaxing electrical current, such as allowed Umklapp processes; collisions in a perfectly clean Galilean-invariant continuum conserve total momentum and do not alone produce a finite dc resistivity.
Zero sound is a collisionless collective density oscillation sustained by the quasiparticle interaction; ordinary first sound occurs when collisions establish local equilibrium during a cycle. Metals and normal liquid helium-3 supply important examples. The description fails in phases with no sufficiently sharp low-energy quasiparticles, such as generic interacting one-dimensional systems, and must be modified after pairing or another ordering transition.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2017 3 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Band edges and optical transitions. A direct band gap has the conduction minimum and valence maximum at the same crystal momentum. A near-edge photon then connects the two almost vertically on an energy-versus-wavevector plot, because its momentum is small on the Brillouin zone scale. An indirect band gap has the extrema at different momenta, so an additional momentum transfer, commonly supplied by phonon absorption or emission, is required for a near-edge radiative transition. This reduces its probability relative to an allowed direct transition.
Near the zone centre, an isotropic direct-gap model has and downward valence dispersions . The heavy-hole and light-hole bands are the upper branches with large and small positive hole masses: the heavy branch is flatter. In common cubic semiconductors these arise from the manifold, while spin-orbit coupling places the split-off valence band lower by . Its thermally generated hole population is suppressed by approximately relative to upper-valence holes, apart from density-of-states factors. Neglect is justified when ; it is not a universal exclusion of this band at arbitrary temperature.
Original schematic direct and indirect band edges, including heavy, light and split-off hole branches
. Details. For an indirect material such as Si, the conduction minimum need not be at . In applying the carrier-density formulae, must mean the actual minimum of the included conduction valley. The supplied scalar effective masses and densities of states constitute a simplified band-edge model; they do not specify Si's full valley anisotropy or multiplicity.
Carrier populations. Let be the Fermi-Dirac distribution. In the nondegenerate conduction tail, . Set and integrate the given density of states:The integral is . Defining the effective density of states givesThe factor two is already included in the supplied density of states; it must not be added a second time.
A hole is an unoccupied valence state. For sufficiently below , . Substitution of gives in exactly the same wayTheir product eliminates the chemical potential:This is the semiconductor mass-action law at thermal equilibrium. In an intrinsic semiconductor, charge neutrality additionally givesIn a doped semiconductor the product still applies in this nondegenerate equilibrium model, but the two populations need not be equal.
Intrinsic chemical potential. Taking logarithms of yields the intrinsic-semiconductor chemical potentialFor unequal band degeneracies, use the first form with the full . For the supplied mass ratio , the shift from midgap at is approximately , toward the valence edge.
Three temperature regimes. The original plot runs from high temperature on the left to low temperature on the right. At high temperature, thermal excitation across the gap dominates and rises rapidly with temperature. In the middle, donors and acceptors are effectively ionized, the material is extrinsic, and makes the plateau. At low temperature, dopant freeze-out binds increasing numbers of electrons to donor levels, reducing the mobile-electron population as the sample cools. Its activation scale is a donor binding energy, not the full band gap. Compensation and incomplete ionization affect that regime.
Gap estimate from the original figure. On the dashed intrinsic branch, . Hence band-gap extraction from intrinsic carrier activation uses the slope of versus . With and expressed in eV/K, two points giveThe very compressed intrinsic branch is only approximately readable: near and near . These give , rather than a precision determination. Neglecting the thermal prefactor gives about from those same rough points. Thus a gap of order – is justified by this schematic plot; its resolution does not support distinguishing a few hundredths of an electronvolt. The declining freeze-out branch must not be used to infer the full gap.
Room-temperature densities. At , the supplied masses giveIn the fully ionized extrinsic plateau, put . Charge neutrality and the mass-action law implySince , is insensitive to the imprecise gap. The minority density is much more sensitive:Using gives and . Using instead gives and . These are explicitly conditional estimates within the stated mass model. The plot alone cannot fix a precise minority density because the uncertain gap occurs inside an exponential.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2017 4 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Noninteracting spectral line. Treat as a wavevector, so physical crystal momentum is . Write ; an energy zero at the chemical potential can be chosen throughout. The temporal factor of a noninteracting state is . With the Fourier transform convention ,Thus its normalized frequency spectral function isOne should not square the delta distribution as if it were an ordinary finite-time transition amplitude. More precisely, the fermionic retarded Green function is . Its Fourier transform is , whose negative imaginary part divided by is the same delta peak.
Interactions and lifetime. Interactions change the dispersion through the real part of the self-energy and permit decay into other excitations through its imaginary part. In the simplest quasiparticle-pole model, exponential decay of the retarded amplitude givesPerforming the causal integral,The corresponding Lorentzian quasiparticle spectral peak isIts total frequency integral is one. The exponential amplitude lifetime is ; the probability lifetime is . Describing as a scattering rate therefore requires the lifetime convention to be specified. The energy half-width is .
A general interacting electron is more accurately described by near the pole. The coherent peak then integrates to the quasiparticle residue and an incoherent continuum carries the remaining weight. In an energy-unit self-energy convention,Linearizing the real denominator gives and at the pole. The requested unit-weight Lorentzian is the normalized quasiparticle model, not the most general exact interacting spectrum.
Peak position and width. At fixed , put and . Differentiation givesIt is positive for and negative for , so the only maximum is at , with height . Setting to half this height gives . ThereforeIn energy units the maximum is and the half-width is . Frequency dependence of the self-energy would require reconsidering both the shape and peak position.
Fermi gas and Fermi liquid. A noninteracting Fermi gas has a delta-function spectral line at its bare dispersion for every momentum. A normal three-dimensional Fermi liquid has a shifted coherent peak plus incoherent spectral weight; close to the Fermi surface its width scales as . At zero temperature the peak becomes arbitrarily sharp at the Fermi surface, while it broadens farther away. Spectral functions include addition and removal weight; occupied-only photoemission contains an extra Fermi factor.
Photoemission measurement. A photon of known energy ejects an electron. Measure its kinetic energy and emission direction. For binding energy below the Fermi level and the appropriate calibrated work function , conservation of energy givesConservation of momentum parallel to a periodic surface giveswhere is a surface reciprocal-lattice vector. At suitable photon energies the photon momentum can be neglected; at higher energies it must be retained. The surface breaks perpendicular translation symmetry, so the perpendicular crystal momentum generally needs a final-state model. A two-dimensional band can be reconstructed directly from the parallel components.
Within the sudden approximation and electric-dipole approximation, photoemission intensity and spectral function are related byHere is measured relative to the chemical potential. Instrumental resolution convolves the product and inelastic scattering adds background. Thus ARPES maps the occupied electron removal spectral function, weighted by a matrix element; it does not measure the full unoccupied spectrum or an unweighted spectral function automatically. Bright ridges give dispersions, and intrinsic widths give decay information after instrumental effects are removed.
Reading the supplied image. Its bright ridges form a graphene-like cone. The crossing near is the Dirac point, not in general the Fermi level. In the paper's plotted energy coordinates its energy is roughly –. A velocity follows from a branch slope independently of the energy zero:For example, the lower branch moves by about between and . This gives andReading other points changes the estimate by tens of percent. The original exam image has unequal energy increments on nearly equally spaced labelled ticks, so it does not justify a precise fitted velocity. The value is an estimate of the cone slope extrapolated to the Fermi crossing, rather than a measured derivative exactly at a visibly identified Fermi cutoff.
To determine a Fermi energy, first calibrate the Fermi edge, then subtract the chosen reference energy. Neither a Fermi-level marker nor an explicit energy-zero convention is supplied in this crop. If its upper termination near is intended to represent the Fermi cutoff, the conditional graph answer is on that axis, or relative to the Dirac crossing. Identifying the crossing itself as the Fermi energy would incorrectly assume undoped graphene.
The research article cited by the exam identifies this as linearly polarized graphene ARPES and independently states for the substrate-doped sample. That resolves the relative energy when this external calibration is admitted.[ref]
https://hrg.pusan.ac.kr/articles/JPCM_0953-8984_26_33_335501.pdf. Section 3, printed p.2 and figure 1(b): Dirac point below the Fermi energy
The crop alone does not uniquely fix an absolute Fermi energy; the source-supported relative value and the conditional axis reading should be distinguished.Use a real, even interaction . Let and . In the Bogoliubov theory expansion, keep terms with zero or two noncondensed operators. The zero-momentum term gives . The terms with two noncondensed operators giveHere is the direct condensate interaction and is its exchange contribution. At fixed total particle number, , soThe second term cancels the direct normal term. Adding the kinetic energy yields the number-conserving Bogoliubov quadratic HamiltonianThe constant is the condensate mean-field theory interaction energy; the normal term describes moving a particle out of the condensate, while the anomalous term creates or annihilates an opposite-momentum pair by exchanging two particles with the condensate. Total particle number remains fixed in the underlying theory; the condensate amplitudes in this notation are treated as classical amplitudes.
For condensate fluctuation power counting, put . Formal interaction-amplitude counting gives , cubic terms and quartic terms ; these are not uniform bounds on individual modes. Thus the latter are down by and relative to the quadratic interaction terms. The correction is relative . Homogeneity eliminates terms linear in nonzero-momentum operators. Small depletion and weak interactions, not low temperature alone, justify the truncation. [ref]
Lecture Notes for Quantum Matter by Steven H. Simon. §4.5, Bogoliubov expansion; fixed-number cancellation derived above
For each opposite-momentum pair use the Bogoliubov transformationEquivalently , , with . The identity preserves the canonical commutation relation. Vanishing anomalous terms require , and hence the Bogoliubov quasiparticle dispersion isSubstitution and normal ordering giveThis is the requested form after putting each inside the oscillator term. By momentum-pair counting in bosonic diagonalization, all sums cover the full nonzero-momentum set; no further factor of two is needed. The bosonic Bogoliubov zero-point shift combines the two vacuum sums before taking a continuum limit.
If smoothly, the low-energy excitations are gapless phonons:For contact repulsion, the healing length separates this regime from the particle-like regime . Stability requires for every nonzero mode. A general momentum-dependent interaction need not share the contact model's entire curve. An unregularized contact model also makes the vacuum-energy shift ultraviolet divergent; a physical finite-range interaction or scattering-length renormalization is needed for that absolute ground-state energy.
A periodic harmonic chain with masses , spacing and nearest-neighbour spring constant hasHamilton's equations give . The discrete Fourier transform , , with in one Brillouin zone, diagonalizes the quadratic form:The harmonic-chain normal-mode reality condition means , not that and are independent real coordinates. For canonical quantization, impose , equivalently . For setThen the quantum harmonic chain is a set of independent phonon oscillators:The centre-of-mass zero mode of a harmonic chain is the free coordinate , with ; it cannot be normalized by dividing by . Retaining it giveswith the corresponding momentum expansion and uniform term . The nonzero modes alone give the site commutator ; the uniform term supplies the missing . Each oscillator occupation is a nonnegative integer, and adding one phonon costs and crystal momentum modulo a reciprocal-lattice vector. [ref]
Applications of Quantum Mechanics by David Tong. §4.1.1, printed pp.103–105, monatomic-chain normal modes and quantization
In the continuum limit of a harmonic chain, , andThe wave equation and linear low- dispersion relation follow. The lattice gives an ultraviolet cutoff; the acoustic approximation does not reproduce the zone-edge flattening.
With the centre of mass fixed, the oscillator partition function and Bose-Einstein distribution areFor a long chain, above its finite-size level spacing and below the zone-edge scale, integrating the two acoustic propagation directions gives . At high temperature each retained oscillator instead contributes to the heat capacity.
For the uniform mean-field approximation field , the inverse fermion propagator is diagonal in momentum, frequency and spin: . The Grassmann Gaussian integral therefore givesHere denotes the residual uniform-field measure; integration over its orientation only affects a nonextensive prefactor. HenceThe exchange field separates the two spin bands by . Integrating out the fermions is exact for a specified auxiliary field; restricting that field to be constant is the mean-field approximation.








