Second Quantization Techniques of Phonons

CutzmanX
1 Quantum Treatment
To see how phonons arise from the quantum treatment of atoms let us consider
a one-dimensional quantum harmonic chain of N atoms with a spacing distance
a. We denote each individual atom position by x
i
for the i-th atom. It is easy
to see, and you should prove to yourself, that the hamiltonian for this system is

H =
N

i=1
p
2
i
2m
+
1
2
m
2

i,j
( x
i
x
j
)
2
where p is the momentum operator, m the mass, the frequency and x
i
the
position of the i-th atom. Now since we are dealing with waves it is best to treat
this hamiltonian in fourier space which uses the normal modes of a wave as a
basis. We introduce the normal coordinates Q
k
which are the discrete fourier
transforms of x
j
and the conjugate momenta
k
which are the discrete fourier
transforms of p
j
. The relationship is given by
x
j
=
1

k
e
ikja

Q
k
p
j
=
1

k
e
ikja

k
with k as the wave vector. One more useful identity is the following

j
e
i(k

+k)ja
= N
k,k

Now we are ready to subsitute our denitions into the hamiltonian using only
the nearest neighbors we have

H =

j
_
_
p
2
j
2m
+
1
2
m
2

j
( x
j+1
x
j
)
2
_
_
=
1
N

j,k,l
_

l
2m
e
i(k+l)ja
+
1
2
m
2
(e
ika
1)e
ijka

Q
k
(e
ila
1)e
ijla

Q
l
_
1
Now we sum over all j and use our identity to get the following
=

k,l
_

l
2m

k,l
+
1
2
m
2
(e
ika
1)(e
ila
1)

Q
k

Q
l

k,l
_
=

k
_

k
2m
+
1
2
m
2
(e
ika
1)(e
ika
1)

Q
k

Q
k
_
=

k
_

k
2m
+
1
2
m
2
(2 2 cos(ka))

Q
k

Q
k
_
=

k
_

k
2m
+
1
2
m
2
(4 sin
2
(ka/2))

Q
k

Q
k
_
=

k
_

k
2m
+
1
2
m
2
k

Q
k

Q
k
_
where w
k
= 2| sin(ka/2)|. If the operatos were hermition, which they are not,
and we look at the hamiltonian this is just N uncoupled oscillators. When we
dened the relations to fourier space, that is the fourier transforms we replaced,
our k values are the values of k within the rst Brillouin zone which are allowed
by the periodic boundary conditions. That is
k
n
=
2n
Na
for n = 0, 1, 2, ..., N/2.
2 Some Commutator Relations
Let us nd some nice commutator relationships between Q
k
and
k
. We recast
the denitions to

Q
k
=
1

l
e
ikal
x
l

k
=
1

l
e
ikal
p
l
With these new forms of denitions we can do some commutation relations.
[

Q
k
,

k
] =
1
N

l,m
e
ikal
e
ik

am
[ x
l
, p
m
]
=
i
N

m
e
ima(kk

)
= i
k,k

Similary it is trivial to show

[

Q
k
,

Q
k
] = [

k
,

k
] = 0.
We note that we could have used these commutator relations to derive the
hamiltonian and you can prove to yourself that this is the case. We also note
that these imply that

Q

k
=

Q
k
and

P

k
=

P
k
.
2
3 Energy Eigenvalues
Some more useful commutator relations involve the hamiltonian and the gen-
eralized coordinates. The following will prove useful when we get the energy
eigenvalues for the phonons. For now we will ignore that these are operators as
we will come back to this case later.
[Q
k
, H] =
1
2m

k
[Q
k
,
k

k
] =
1
2m

k
(
k
[Q
k
,
k
] + [Q
k
,
k
]
k
)
=
1
2m
(i
k
+ i
k
) =
i
m

k
= i
d
dt
Q
k
= i

Q
k
[

Q
k
, H] =
1
m
[
k
, H] =

2
k
2

k
[
k
, Q
k
Q
k
] =

2
k
2

k
(Q
k
[
k
, Q
k
] + [
k
, Q
k
]Q
k
)
=

2
k
2
(iQ
k
+ iQ
k
) = i
2
k
Q
k
= i

Q
k
With this commutator we can conlude the following relationship.

Q
k
+
2
k
Q
k
= 0
But this is nothing more than the equation of a harmonic oscillator with fre-
quency
k
. This means that the energy eigenvalues are nothing more than

k
=
_
n +
1
2
_

k
where n
k
= 0, 1, 2, ... and the energy of the entire system of all phonons is
U =

k
_
n +
1
2
_

k
Thus we see the quantization of the energy of elastic waves. But all quantum
systems exhibit both particle and wave like properties. This is the subject of
second quantization.
4 Second Quantization
Second quantization is a method used in quantum eld theory to describe many-
particle systems. This is done by quantizing the elds using a basis that de-
scribes the number of particles occupying each state in a complete set of single-
particle states. This is dierent from rst quantization which uses a single-
particle states as basis. Let us consider an ordered and complete single-particle
basis
{|
1
, |
2
, |
3
, ...}
where |
i
is the set of all states for the i-th particle. For an N particle system
we can represent the occupation numbers of each basis state as
|n

1
, n

2
, n

3
, ...
3
where n

j
means that there are n particles in the state
j
. We also note that
the following hold

j
n

j
= N. We dene the operator as
n

j
_
= n

j
_
.
We also recall that the pauli exclusion principle distinguishes between fermions
and bosons so we get the following.
n

j
=
_
0, 1 fermions
0, 1, 2, .. bosons
5 Creation and Annihilation Operators
The creation and annihilation operators are a way to connect the rst quanti-
zation to the second and as we will see they are very similar. This theory is
essential for many-body theories. We can divide the operators between fermions
and bosons.
5.1 Bosons
Let us denote the creation operator by

b

j
and the annihilation operator by

b

j
.
These raise and lower the occupation number of the states. That is

..., n
v
j1
, n
v
j
, n
v
j+1
, ...
_
=
_
n
v
j
+ 1

..., n
v
j1
, n
v
j
+ 1, n
v
j+1
, ...
_

..., n
v
j1
, n
v
j
, n
v
j+1
, ...
_
=

n
v
j

..., n
v
j1
, n
v
j
1, n
v
j+1
, ...
_
Now since bosons are symmetric under exchange in the single particle state it
must be the case that the annihilation and creation operator commute. Thus
the following properties must be true.
[

j
,

k
] = 0
[

j
,

k
] = 0
[

j
,

k
] =

k
.
This gives us an idea and a basis on how to classify and identify bosons.
5.2 Fermions
Fermions have a similar structure as bosons but we note that the Pauli exclusion
principle comes into play. Let us denote the creation operator by c

j
and the
annihilation operator by c

j
. Then we can do a similar restatement for raising
and lowering occupation numbers noting that we are limited to 1 or 0.
c

j
|..., 0, ... = |..., 1, ...
c

j
|..., 1, ... = |..., 0, ...
c

j
|..., 1, ... = 0
c

j
|..., 0, ... = 0
4
Now since fermions are antisymmetric under exchange in single particle states
it must be the case that the following properties are true.
{ c

j
, c

k
} = 0
{ c

j
, c

k
} = 0
{ c

j
, c

k
} =

k
.
where the brackets {} are standard format for antisymmetric commutators.
This also gives us a way to classify fermions.
6 Second Quantization of Phonons
Now that we are familiar with the idea of second quantization and how creation
and annihilation operators operate for bosons and fermions we can use these to
deduce that phonons are bosons. As stated earlier we now focus on the operator
version of the hamiltonian. We start by introducing two ladder operators, which
are analogous to the quantum harmonic oscillator, dened by the following

Q
k
= l
k
1

2
(

k
+

b
k
)

k
=

l
k
i

2
(

b
k
)
where l
k
=
_
/m
k
. We can rewrite the terms in terms of the creation and
annihilation operators. Thus we get the following two terms

b
k
=
1

2
_

Q
k
l
k
+ i

k
/l
k
_

k
=
1

2
_

Q
k
l
k
i

k
/l
k
_
which will be useful. Now continuing the use of the analogy to the quantum
harmonic oscillator we can show that

H =

k
_

b
k
+
1
2
_
and all that is left is to prove it. We will do this by substituting the denitions
of the operators and proving that it does, in fact, represent the Hamiltonian for
5
the phonon.

H =

k
_

b
k
+
1
2
_
=

k
2
__

Q
k
l
k
i

k
/l
k
__

Q
k
l
k
+ i

k
/l
k
_
+ 1
_
=

k
2
_

Q
k

Q

k
l
2
k
+
i

[

Q
k
,

k
] +

2
/l
2
k
+ 1
_
=

k
2
_

Q
k

Q
k
l
2
k
+
i

[

Q
k
,

k
] +

2
/l
2
k
+ 1
_
=

k
2
_

Q
k

Q
k
l
2
k
+

2
/l
2
k
_
=

k
_

k
2m
+
1
2
m
2
k

Q
k

Q
k
_
Thus we have proven that the Hamiltonian can take on the initial form of
the operator. It now suces to prove that the commutator relations hold the
symmetry properties of bosons. That is
[

b
k
,

] =
i
2
_
[

Q
k
,

k
] + [

Q
k
,

k
]
_
=
k,k

b
k
,

b
k
] = [

k
,

] = 0
where the last two are trivial. Thus we can now deduce the fact that phonons are
bosons, since they satisfy the bosonic nature of second quantization. We also
can note that each phonon is a collective mode, that is each ladder operator
sums up the momentum and position operators of each atom. A generalized
proof to three dimensions shows that

H =

k
3

s=1

k,s
_

k,s

b
k,s
+
1
2
_
which completes our discussion of quantization techniques for phonons.
6