# Tagged Questions

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1answer
31 views

### Vector $\vec{z}$ and its conjugate transpose $\overline{\vec{v}^\top}$ - is it the same as $\left|z\right\rangle$ and $\left\langle z \right|$

Lets say we have a complex vector $\vec{z} \!=\!(1\!+\!2i~~2\!+\!3i~~3\!+\!4i)^T$. Its scalar product $\vec{z}^T\!\! \cdot \vec{z}$ with itself will be a complex number, but if we conjugate the ...
3answers
139 views

### Hilbert space of harmonic oscillator: Countable vs uncountable?

Hm, this just occurred to me while answering another question: If I write the Hamiltonian for a harmonic oscillator as $$H = \frac{p^2}{2m} + \frac{1}{2} m \omega^2 x^2$$ then wouldn't one set of ...
1answer
84 views

### Some Dirac notation explanations

Equation for an expectation value $\langle x \rangle$ is known to me: \begin{align} \langle x \rangle = \int\limits_{-\infty}^{\infty} \overline{\psi}x\psi\, d x \end{align} By the definition we ...
0answers
74 views
+50

### Coherent U(N) intertwiners in LQG and a measure on the Grassmanian

This is a detailed question about $U(N)$ intertwiners in LQG, and it comes from the the paper by Freidel and Livine (2011 - archive). It is very specific but related to finding a measure on a quotient ...
2answers
191 views

### QM formalism is one big confusion - lack of geometrical explaination with images

I have been trying to learn QM and it went well (all untill harmonic oscilator) until i had to face the formalism: Hilbert space- As a novice to QM i am very sad that in none of the books i have ...
1answer
58 views

### What is inner product of the vacuum state with itself?

If $|0 \rangle$ is the vacuum state in quantum mechanics and $\alpha$ is any complex number, what is $\langle 0 | \alpha | 0 \rangle$? I need to have that $\langle 0 | \alpha | 0 \rangle = \alpha$, ...
1answer
175 views

### Entangled or unentangled?

I got a little puzzled when thinking about two entangled fermions. Say that we have a Hilbert space in which we have two fermionic orbitals $a$ and $b$. Then the Hilbert space $H$'s dimension is just ...
1answer
80 views

### Operators in quantum mechanics

According to the Quantum Mechanics, can we write $\langle q|p\rangle = e^{ipq}$? If so then how? And if we transfer to integrate formulation then how it will look like?
2answers
114 views

### Vector representation of wavefunction in quantum mechanics?

I am new to quantum mechanics, and I just studied some parts of "wave mechanics" version of quantum mechanics. But I heard that wavefunction can be represented as vector in Hilbert space. In my eye, ...
1answer
104 views

### The issue on existence of inverse operations of $a$ and $a^{\dagger}$

I have asked a question at math.stackexchange that have a physical meaning. My assumption: Suppose $a$ and $a^\dagger$ is Hermitian adjoint operators and $[a,a^\dagger]=1$. I want to prove that ...
1answer
76 views

### Nonseparable Hilbert space

What kind of things can go wrong if we try to do quantum mechanics on a nonseparable Hilbert space? I have heard that usual mathematical manipulations that we take for granted will no longer hold. ...
3answers
309 views

### How to tackle 'dot' product for spin matrices

I read a textbook today on quantum mechanics regarding the Pauli spin matrices for two particles, it gives the Hamiltonian as  H = \alpha[\sigma_z^1 + \sigma_z^2] + ...
1answer
128 views

### How does a state in quantum mechanics evolve?

I have a question about the time evolution of a state in quantum mechanics. The time-dependent Schrodinger equation is given as $$i\hbar\frac{d}{dt}|\psi(t)\rangle = H|\psi(t)\rangle$$ I am ...
5answers
223 views

### Math of eigenvalue problem in quantum mechanics

I learned the eigenvalue problem in linear algebra before and I just find that the quantum mechanics happen to associate the Schrodinger equation with the eigenvalue problem. In linear algebra, we ...
1answer
64 views

### Notational techniques for dealing with creation operators on Fock space

This question is trying to see if anyone has some simple notation (or tricks) for dealing with operators acting on coherent states in a Fock space. I use bosons for concreteness; what I'm interested ...
1answer
170 views

### Show that for QM operator A: $\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\psi A^{\dagger}A\psi dx = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}(A\psi)^*(A\psi)dx$

I need to show for $$A = \frac{d}{dx} + \tanh x, \qquad A^{\dagger} = - \frac{d}{dx} + \tanh x,$$ that \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\psi^* A^{\dagger}A\psi dx = ...
2answers
142 views

### Inner Product Spaces

I am trying to reconcile the definition of Inner Product Spaces that I encountered in Mathematics with the one I recently came across in Physics. In particular, if $(,)$ denotes an inner product in ...
3answers
215 views

### What is a dual / cotangent space?

Dual spaces are home to bras in quantum mechanics; cotangent spaces are home to linear maps in the tensor formalism of general relativity. After taking courses in these two subjects, I've still never ...
3answers
117 views

### What is this state as a matrix?

In QM I have the state $\lvert 00 \rangle \langle 00 \rvert$. Can anyone tell me what this would look like as a matrix? I know that  \lvert 00 \rangle = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 0 & 0 ...
1answer
187 views

### What really are superselection sectors and what are they used for?

When reading the term superselection sector, I always wrongly thought this must have something to do with supersymmetry ... DON'T laugh at me ... ;-) But now I have read in this answer, that for ...
1answer
94 views

### Spontaneous symmetry breaking: How can the vacuum be infinitly degenerate?

In classical field theories, it is with no difficulty to imagine a system to have a continuum of ground states, but how can this be in the quantum case? Suppose a continuous symmetry with charge $Q$ ...
1answer
83 views

### State space of QFT, CCR and quantization, and the spectrum of a field operator?

In the canonical quantization of fields, CCR is postulated as (for scalar boson field ): $$[\phi(x),\pi(y)]=i\delta(x-y)\qquad\qquad(1)$$ in analogy with the ordinary QM commutation relation: ...
1answer
54 views

### Can I prove boundedness of an operator without checking it for its whole domain?

(I don't have a direct reference so this is a little fishy and I'll delete it if nobody recognises what I'm talking about, but I though for starters I'll ask anyway) I've heard at university that if ...
2answers
112 views

### Space of states in quantum mechanics

A state in quantum mechanics I think is just a vector in a complex Hilbert space. As the physical properties are defined up to a phase $e^{i\theta}$ then this Hilbert space is invariant under the ...
1answer
143 views

### Differences between orthogonality and Kronecker delta function? [closed]

If $i$ and $j$ are two variables then Kronecker delta is written as \delta_{i,j}~:=~\begin{cases}1 \hspace{3mm} \mbox{if} \hspace{3mm} i=j,\\ 0 \hspace{3mm}\mbox{if} \hspace{3mm}i \neq ...
1answer
172 views

### What does it mean for something to be a ket?

Ok so I will provide the following example, which I am choosing at random from Sabio et al(2010): \psi(r,\phi)~=~\left[ \begin{array}{c} A_1r\sin(\theta-\phi)\\ ...
1answer
261 views

### Wave function and Dirac bra-ket notation

Would anyone be able to explain the difference, technically, between wave function notation for quantum systems e.g. $\psi=\psi(x)$ and Dirac bra-ket vector notation? How do you get from one to the ...
1answer
128 views

### Once I have the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors, how do I find the eigenfunctions?

I am using Mathematica to construct a matrix for the Hamiltonian of some system. I have built this matrix already, and I have found the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors, I am uncertain if what I did ...
2answers
149 views

### In Dirac notation, what do the subscripts represent? (Solution for particle in a box in mind)

So the set of solutions for the particle in a box is given by $$\psi_n(x) = \sqrt{\frac{2}{L}}\sin(\frac{n\pi x}{L}).$$ In Dirac notation $<\psi_i|\psi_j>=\delta_{ij}$ assuming $|\psi_i>$ ...
3answers
215 views

### Normalisation factor $\psi_0$ for wave function $\psi = \psi_0 \sin(kx-\omega t)$

I know that if I integrate probabilitlity $|\psi|^2$ over a whole volume $V$ I am supposed to get 1. This equation describes this. $$\int \limits^{}_{V} \left|\psi \right|^2 \, \textrm{d} V = 1\\$$ ...
2answers
127 views

### What does the quantum state of a system tell us about itself?

In quantum mechanics, quantum state refers to the state of a quantum system. A quantum state is given as a vector in a vector space, called the state vector. The state vector theoretically ...
3answers
227 views

### A confusion about base states of a quantum system

I have been told that the eigenkets of a operator of a space form a basis for the state of the quantum system. The eigenbasis obtained from the position operator $\textbf{x}$ is the (continuously) ...
2answers
133 views

### Why must quantum logic gates be linear operators?

Why must quantum logic gates be linear operators? I mean, is it just a consequence of quantum mechanics postulates?
1answer
370 views

### Intuitive meaning of Hilbert Space formalism

I am totally confused about the Hilbert Space formalism of Quantum Mechanics. Can somebody please elaborate on the following points: The observables are given by self-adjoint operators on the ...
3answers
160 views

### Banach Space representations of physical systems

I think most physicists mostly model physical systems as some kind of Hilbert space. Hilbert spaces are a strict subset of Banach spaces. Questions: Can physical systems really have non-compact ...
3answers
684 views

### Don't understand the integral over the square of the Dirac delta function

In Griffiths' Introduction to Quantum Mechanics he gives the eigenfunctions of the Hermitian operator $\hat{x}=x$ as being $$g_{\lambda}\left(x\right)~=~B_{\lambda}\delta\left(x-\lambda\right).$$ ...
2answers
334 views

### What's the physical significance of the inner product of two wave functions in quantum region?

I am a reading a book for beginners of the quantum mechanics. In one section, the author shows the inner product of two wave functions $\langle\alpha\vert\beta\rangle$. I am wondering what's the ...
0answers
88 views

### The state of Indefinite metric in Quantum Electrodynamics

I faced difficulties to grasp why indefinite metric is introduced from no where in QED, after searching internet I found that this is a problem in QED, because one needs it to preserve theory's ...
0answers
153 views

### Representing a polarization vector for light as a 'manifold of two state'

Explain me these projections please Context: I was reading a paper (Phys. Rev. A 68, 052307) which involved mesoscopic coherent states of light. There, in order to calculate the uncertainty of a ...
1answer
190 views

### Existence of adjoint of an antilinear operator, time reversal

The time reversal operator $T$ is an antiunitary operator, and I saw $T^\dagger$ in many places (for example when some guy is doing a "time reversal" $THT^\dagger$), but I wonder if there is a ...
1answer
136 views

### Scattering states of Hydrogen atom in non-relativistic perturbation theory

In doing second order time-independent perturbation theory in non-relativistic quantum mechanics one has to calculate the overlap between states E^{(2)}_n ~=~ \sum_{m \neq n}\frac{|\langle m | H' ...
5answers
305 views

### The role of representation theory in QM/QFT?

I need help understanding the role of representation theory in QM/QFT. My understanding of representation theory in this context is as follows: there are physical symmetries of the system we are ...
3answers
250 views

### Takhatajan's mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics

So I began skimming L. Takhatajan's Quantum Mechanics For Mathematicians, and saw the mathematical formulation of QM that he uses (page 51). (The PDF file is available here.) I've only taken a basic ...
1answer
251 views

### Rigged Hilbert space and QM

Are there any comprehensive texts that discuss QM using the notion of rigged Hilbert spaces? It would be nice if there were a text that went through the standard QM examples using this structure.
3answers
95 views

### How much space to simulate a small Hilbert space?

I'm thinking about trying to do a numerical simulation of some very simple QM problems. How much space do I need? To simulate the Hilbert space? I'd like to eventually simulate the absorption or ...
2answers
689 views

### Difficulties with bra-ket notation

I have started to study quantum mechanics. I know linear algebra,functional analysis, calculus, and so on, but at this moment I have a problem in Dirac bra-ket formalism. Namely, I have problem with ...
2answers
145 views

### Kugo and Ojima's Canonical Formulation of Yang-Mills using BRST

I am trying to study the canonical formulation of Yang-Mills theories so that I have direct access to the $n$-particle of the theory (i.e. the Hilbert Space). To that end, I am following Kugo and ...
2answers
156 views

### When and how do you represent a two body state as a tensor product?

I have read that in quantum mechanics, compound systems are constructed as tensor products. But on page 177 of Griffith, for example, a two body wavefunction is introduced as Psi ...
3answers
305 views

### Why we use $L_2$ Space In QM?

I asked this question for many people/professors without getting a sufficient answer, why in QM Lebesgue spaces of second degree are assumed to be the one that corresponds to the Hilbert vector space ...
1answer
246 views

### When we define the S-matrix, what are “in” and “out” states?

I have seen the scattering matrix defined using initial ("in") and final ("out") eigenstates of the free hamiltonian, with \left| \vec{p}_1 \cdots \vec{p}_n \; \text{out} \right\rangle = S^{-1} ...
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