Skip to main content

physics - Boson commutation relations



I have tried to adapt this answer to my problem of calculating some bosonic commutation relations, but there are still some issues.


The way I'm implementing the commutator is straightforward:


commutator[x_, y_] :=x**y-y**x

Example: if I want to compute $[b^\dagger b,ab^\dagger]$ I write


commutator[BosonC["b"]**BosonA["b"], BosonA["a"]**BosonC["b"]]

and the output is $ab^\dagger$ as it should be. However this fails when I compute $[a^\dagger a,ab^\dagger]$ (which should be $-ab^\dagger)$:


commutator[BosonC["a"]**BosonA["a"], BosonA["a"]**BosonC["b"]]
Out: a†** a^2 ** b†- a ** b†** a†** a


How can I modify the code in this answer to have it work properly?


EDIT Building on the answers of @QuantumDot and @evanb, I came up with this solution. First I implement the commutator, with Distribute.


NCM[x___] = NonCommutativeMultiply[x];
SetAttributes[commutator, HoldAll]

NCM[] := 1
commutator[NCM[x___], NCM[y___]] := Distribute[NCM[x, y] - NCM[y, x]]
commutator[x_, y_] := Distribute[NCM[x, y] - NCM[y, x]]


Then I implement two tools, one for teaching Mathematica how to swap creation and annihilation operators and one is for operator ordering:


dag[x_] := ToExpression[ToString[x] ~~ "†"]

mode[x_] := With[{x†= dag[x]},
NCM[left___, x, x†, right___] := NCM[left, x†, x, right] + NCM[left, right]]

leftright[L_, R_] := With[{R† = dag[R], L† = dag[L]},
NCM[left___, pr : R | R†, pl : L | L†, right___] := NCM[left, pl, pr, right]]

Now I can use it like this: after evaluating the definitions I input (for instance)



mode[a]
mode[b]
leftright[a,b]

And finally I can evaluate commutators, for instance


commutator[NCM[a†,a] + NCM[b†,b], NCM[a,b†]]
(* 0 *)

Answer



The function NonCommutativeMultiply has too long of a name, so I make a short-hand version of it (NCP stands for non-commutative product):


NCP[x___] := NonCommutativeMultiply[x];


Now, here's the code


NCP[] := 1
NCP[left___, a, a†, right___] := NCP[left, a†, a, right] + NCP[left, right]
NCP[left___, b, b†, right___] := NCP[left, b†, b, right] + NCP[left, right]
NCP[left___, pl : a | a†, pr : b | b†, right___] := NCP[left, pr, pl, right]

Now your function:


SetAttributes[commutator, HoldAll]    
commutator[NCP[x___], NCP[y___]] := NCP[x, y] - NCP[y, x]


Let's give it a try:


commutator[NCP[b†, b], NCP[a, b†]]


b† ** a



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

front end - keyboard shortcut to invoke Insert new matrix

I frequently need to type in some matrices, and the menu command Insert > Table/Matrix > New... allows matrices with lines drawn between columns and rows, which is very helpful. I would like to make a keyboard shortcut for it, but cannot find the relevant frontend token command (4209405) for it. Since the FullForm[] and InputForm[] of matrices with lines drawn between rows and columns is the same as those without lines, it's hard to do this via 3rd party system-wide text expanders (e.g. autohotkey or atext on mac). How does one assign a keyboard shortcut for the menu item Insert > Table/Matrix > New... , preferably using only mathematica? Thanks! Answer In the MenuSetup.tr (for linux located in the $InstallationDirectory/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/TextResources/X/ directory), I changed the line MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog"] to read MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog", MenuKey["m", Modifiers-...

How to thread a list

I have data in format data = {{a1, a2}, {b1, b2}, {c1, c2}, {d1, d2}} Tableform: I want to thread it to : tdata = {{{a1, b1}, {a2, b2}}, {{a1, c1}, {a2, c2}}, {{a1, d1}, {a2, d2}}} Tableform: And I would like to do better then pseudofunction[n_] := Transpose[{data2[[1]], data2[[n]]}]; SetAttributes[pseudofunction, Listable]; Range[2, 4] // pseudofunction Here is my benchmark data, where data3 is normal sample of real data. data3 = Drop[ExcelWorkBook[[Column1 ;; Column4]], None, 1]; data2 = {a #, b #, c #, d #} & /@ Range[1, 10^5]; data = RandomReal[{0, 1}, {10^6, 4}]; Here is my benchmark code kptnw[list_] := Transpose[{Table[First@#, {Length@# - 1}], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list kptnw2[list_] := Transpose[{ConstantArray[First@#, Length@# - 1], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list OleksandrR[list_] := Flatten[Outer[List, List@First[list], Rest[list], 1], {{2}, {1, 4}}] paradox2[list_] := Partition[Riffle[list[[1]], #], 2] & /@ Drop[list, 1] RM[list_] := FoldList[Transpose[{First@li...

dynamic - How can I make a clickable ArrayPlot that returns input?

I would like to create a dynamic ArrayPlot so that the rectangles, when clicked, provide the input. Can I use ArrayPlot for this? Or is there something else I should have to use? Answer ArrayPlot is much more than just a simple array like Grid : it represents a ranged 2D dataset, and its visualization can be finetuned by options like DataReversed and DataRange . These features make it quite complicated to reproduce the same layout and order with Grid . Here I offer AnnotatedArrayPlot which comes in handy when your dataset is more than just a flat 2D array. The dynamic interface allows highlighting individual cells and possibly interacting with them. AnnotatedArrayPlot works the same way as ArrayPlot and accepts the same options plus Enabled , HighlightCoordinates , HighlightStyle and HighlightElementFunction . data = {{Missing["HasSomeMoreData"], GrayLevel[ 1], {RGBColor[0, 1, 1], RGBColor[0, 0, 1], GrayLevel[1]}, RGBColor[0, 1, 0]}, {GrayLevel[0], GrayLevel...