Past exam of the advanced quantum physics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / Section B / B4 / Solution

For physical spin ladder operators, $S_j^{\pm }=S_j^x\pm i{S}_j^y$. Operators at distinct sites commute. Expanding the two products cancels their cross terms and givesAdding the remaining component provesFor spin one-half, $S^{+}|\downarrow ⟩=\hslash |\uparrow ⟩$, $S^{-}|\uparrow ⟩=\hslash |\downarrow ⟩$, and raising an up spin or lowering a down spin gives zero. These formulas restore the physical $\hslash$ factors implicit in the dimensionless ladder hint.

Let $|n⟩$ abbreviate the state with the only down spin at site $n$, keeping $|{\psi }_0⟩$ for the fully up state. If $n$ lies on neither end of bond $(j,j+1)$, that bond contains two up spins. The ladder terms vanish, while $S_j^z{S}_{j+1}^z$ gives ${\hslash }^2/4$. ThusFor a down spin at $j$, the $z$ product is instead $-{\hslash }^2/4$, and $S_j^{+}{S}_{j+1}^{-}$ moves it to $j+1$ with amplitude ${\hslash }^2$. For a down spin at $j+1$, the other ladder product moves it back. ThereforeEvery bond in $|{\psi }_0⟩$ is aligned, so summing its $N$ bond energies givesThis is indeed a ground-state energy: a pair of spin-one-half particles has ${\mathbf{S}}_j\cdot {\mathbf{S}}_{j+1}$ eigenvalues ${\hslash }^2/4$ and $-3{\hslash }^2/4$, so each ferromagnetic bond is bounded below by $-J/4$, simultaneously attained by the fully aligned state. The isotropic Heisenberg model has a whole maximum-total-spin ground multiplet, not a unique all-up ground state.

In the single-excitation subspace, only the two bonds adjacent to the down spin differ from the aligned background. Their diagonal energy increase is $J$, and each neighboring hop has amplitude $-J/2$. Hence, with periodic site indices,This is an exact finite-dimensional hopping problem. Choose the active one-site translation convention $T|n⟩=|n+1⟩$. A periodic plane-wave coefficient pattern requires $e^{iq(n+N)a}=e^{iqna}$, soThere are $N$ independent such wavevectors, for example one set of $N$ consecutive integers $\ell$ in a Brillouin zone. The normalized one-magnon Bloch states on a ring are $|q⟩=N^{-1/2}{\sum }_{n=1}^N{e}^{iqna}|n⟩$. Reindexing with the periodic coefficient condition gives $T|q⟩=e^{-iqa}|q⟩$ and hence $T^N|q⟩=|q⟩$.

There is a logical qualification to the condition stated in the paper. On an $N$-site ring $T^N=I$ already holds for every state. In particular, the finite sum written with an arbitrary real $q$ also returns to itself after $N$ translations; that condition alone does not quantize $q$. The displayed allowed values are the ones for which the ansatz is a single one-site translation eigenstate, equivalently a consistently periodic plane wave. This is the additional condition needed for the subsequent energy-eigenstate argument. Other $q$ values generally describe superpositions of the allowed momentum modes.

Apply the hopping Hamiltonian operator and shift the summation index using periodic boundary condition. The coefficients from $|n-1⟩$ and $|n+1⟩$ are respectively $e^{iqa}$ and $e^{-iqa}$ times the original coefficient. Thusand the nearest-neighbour ferromagnetic magnon dispersion isThe unnormalized state in the question has the same energy. Distinct allowed momenta are orthogonal, since $N^{-1}{\sum }_n{e}^{i(q-q^{\prime })na}={\delta }_{q{q}^{\prime }}$ over one set of representatives.

For large $N$ the sampled wavevectors become dense, and the requested sketch is the periodic curve $[E(q)-E_0]/J=1-\cos (qa)$ over $-2\pi <qa<2\pi$. It has a zero at $q=0$ and tends to the equivalent zero at either open endpoint; maxima $2J$ occur at $q=\pm \pi /a$. Near any equivalent zero,using $q$ measured from that zero. The low-momentum ferromagnetic magnon is quadratic, with group velocity ${\hslash }^{-1}dE/dq=(Ja/\hslash )\sin (qa)$. The $q=0$ state is proportional to the total spin lowering operator acting on $|{\psi }_0⟩$, so it belongs to the same ground multiplet and has exactly zero excitation energy. Extending the plot beyond one reciprocal period repeats states rather than adding new independent modes. The lattice spacing $a$ is the nearest-neighbor chord length specified in the paper; $Na$ is the translation length in this lattice description, not necessarily the continuous circumference of a circular arrangement.