Coherent-state resolution of identity Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-18
For an unnormalized bosonic coherent state, the measure is over the complex plane. Gaussian moments recover the identity in the Fock state basis. For a fermionic coherent state, use independent Grassmann variables and an ordered Berezin integral with . The coefficient of in the weighted projector is the identity. Products of these one-mode measures give the finite-mode result.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 81 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The exponential acts on the Fock vacuum: . For bosons, are commuting complex numbers. Since , commuting through the exponential gives . These are unnormalized bosonic coherent states.
For fermions, the labels are independent odd Grassmann variables, which anticommute with one another and with the fermionic operators. For one mode, the fermionic coherent state is . The canonical anticommutation relations give , using . The even factors commute between modes, so the same argument applies to every . A Grassmann eigenvalue is a formal extension of the state space, not an ordinary complex eigenvalue of the nilpotent annihilation operator.
With dual state , both cases obey .
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.
For one bosonic mode, define the unnormalized bosonic coherent state . The commutator gives and . The normalized state is ; it is not orthogonal to a different coherent state. The coherent-state resolution of identity follows from Gaussian moments,For many modes take products of these states and measures. The complex amplitudes have the natural scale of square root occupation; coherent states turn normal-ordered matrix elements into classical symbols without replacing the quantum trace by a single classical configuration.
For fermions, and a nilpotent annihilation operator cannot have an arbitrary nonzero ordinary complex eigenvalue. Introduce independent Grassmann variables , anticommuting among themselves and with the fermionic operators, and define . Then and . With an ordered Berezin integral measure satisfying for one pair,for an even operator ; this is the fermionic coherent-state trace. In one mode the trace integrand is , whose integral is . Without the sign reversal it would be the supertrace, not the thermal trace. These formal Grassmann-valued coherent states do not represent ordinary complex-valued fermion amplitudes.
To construct the many-body thermal path integral, write with and divide the imaginary-time interval into slices of width . Insert the appropriate coherent-state resolution of identity between factors. For a normal-ordered Hamiltonian, the adjacent-slice kernel iscoherent-state time slicing makes the overlap and Gaussian measure combine into the first-order time derivative. The grand-canonical coherent-state action in the regulated continuum limit isFor bosons the integration variables are complex, with the conjugate labels on the original integration contour; for fermions the barred and unbarred Grassmann variables are independent. The continuum notation retains the time-sliced ordering prescription. For example, has normal symbol , whereas has that symbol plus . Dropping that distinction changes a theory. The coherent-state thermal boundary conditions follow because the bosonic trace closes paths periodically and the fermionic sign in the trace closes them antiperiodically:The barred fields obey the same respective boundary conditions. Hence Matsubara frequencies are and . The derivative term encodes the canonical structure; omitting it would remove the quantum dynamics.[ref]
Physics 215C: Quantum Field Theory, Part 3 by John McGreevy. §§3.1–3.2, printed pp.51–61: coherent-state completeness, time slicing and fermionic trace boundary conditions
As a check, a free diagonal mode with gives for , whereas gives . Gaussian integration produces an inverse determinant for bosons and a determinant for independent complex fermions, with their respective temporal boundary conditions. Differentiating recovers Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac occupations. Interactions become higher powers in the normal-ordered symbols, and sources generate time-ordered correlations. The coherent-state construction preserves statistics, ordering and boundary conditions together; a formal continuum expression without its measure and temporal prescription is incomplete.
Unnormalized bosonic coherent state 2026-10-06
An unnormalized bosonic coherent state is for a complex label . The canonical commutation relation gives and overlap . Multiplication by produces a normalized coherent state. The unnormalized form makes the coherent-state resolution of identity and thermal time slicing particularly simple.