Fermion Definition and 104 Threads

In the standard model fermion field components collect quite a few labels. The basic fermion field has 4 components that obey anti commutation relations. If one has two types of fermions, say electrons and muons. Do these commute or anti commute? Same question for other labels like gauge group...

I came across the following formula (2.68) in di Francesco's CFT book for a fermionic coherent state: $$\ket{\xi} = e^{\psi^{\dagger}T\xi}\ket{0}$$ where##\ket{\xi} = \ket{\xi_{1},...,\xi_{n}}##, ##\xi_{i}## is a Grassman number, ##T## is some invertible matrix, and ##\psi^{\dagger}## is the...

I am trying to reproduce the results of a certain paper here. In particular, I'm trying to verify their eqn 5.31. The setup is N = 4 gauge quantum mechanics, obtained by the dimensional reduction of N = 1 gauge theory in 4 dimensions. ##\sigma^i## denotes the ith pauli matrix. ##\lambda_{A...

I ran across the following problem : Statement: Consider a gas of ## N ## fermions and suppose that each energy level ## \varepsilon_n## has a multiplicity of ## g_n = (n+1)^2 ##. What is the Fermi energy and the average energy of this gas when ## N \rightarrow \infty## ? My attempt: The...

I have this Lagrangian for a free massless left Weyl spinor, so it’s just the kinetic term, that can be written embedding the field into a larger Dirac spinor and then taking the left projector in this way: $$i \bar{\psi} \cancel{\partial} P_L \psi$$ Srednicki says that the momentum space...

For a complex scalar field, the lagrangian density and the associated conserved current are given by: $$ \mathcal{L} = \partial^\mu \psi^\dagger \partial_\mu \psi -m^2 \psi^\dagger \psi $$ $$J^{\mu} = i \left[ (\partial^\mu \psi^\dagger ) \psi - (\partial^\mu \psi ) \psi^\dagger \right] $$...

Where does the ##m## in ##(3.2)## come from? It doesn’t seem to enter anywhere in Feynman rules for the given diagram

Hello everyone, I have a problem with bounds states of the 1D Weyl equation. I want to solve the Dirac equation ##−i\hbar \partial _x\Psi+m(x)\sigma _z \Psi=E\Psi## with the mass ##m(x)=0,0<x<a##, ##m(x)=\infty,x<0,x>a##. ##\Psi=(\Psi_1,\Psi_2)^T## is a two component spinor. Outside the well...

Following the method by Peskin and Shroesder 11.4 Trying to calculate the vacuum energy of a fermion. If my method is correct so far the next step is to find gamma function , the formula I have for gamma fuctions doesn't match this equation. Can anyone help with the next step? Starting with the...

I'm currently looking at how fermion masses are produced via the Higgs mechanism in "An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory" by Peskin and Schroeder. It all makes a lot of sense and I've been fine with it so far, but I ended up getting stuck on something that's driving me nuts. I feel silly...

I'm working out the quark loop diagram and I've drawn it as follows: where the greek letters are the Lorentz and Dirac indices for the gluon and quark respectively and the other letters are color indices. For this diagram I've written...

Okay i was reading abrikosov's book and he said since in QM spin only changes by integer values boson excitiation happens one at a time and fermion ALWAYS appears or disappears in pairs. but isn't change from a spin up to spin down 1/2 to -1/2? or i had the wrong convention which |1/2| shouldve...

Hello everyone, I am working on the following problem: I would like to determine the invariant Matrix element of the process ##\psi\left(p,s\right)+\phi\left(k\right)\rightarrow\psi\left(p',s'\right)+\phi\left(k'\right)## within Yukawa theory, where ##\psi\left(p,s\right)## denotes a fermion...

Shankar, in the book "Quantum Field Theory and Condensed Matter", at page 328 writes the famous bosonization formula in the form $$\psi_{\pm}(x)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\alpha}} e^{\pm i \sqrt{4\pi} \phi_{\pm}(x)}$$ and then writes: "This is not an operator identity: no combination of boson operators...

Summary: how to cure infrared divergences in fermion propagator in QED? In calculating the fermion propagator in QED, we identify Ultraviolet and Infrared divergences. the Ultraviolet divergences solved by regularization, but I don't understand how to treat the Infrared divergences. Infrared...

I've recently been reading about the 2-dimensional Ising model and its continuum limit from several sources, including https://webhome.weizmann.ac.il/home/fnfal/papers/Ising/lecture1.pdf https://webhome.weizmann.ac.il/home/fnfal/papers/Ising/lecture2.pdf As far as I understood it, the state...

Hello ,evreyone.I have two questions about fermi energy. 1,Can I claim that 'fermi energy ' play the role of chemical potential? 2,I have learned from thermal physics that only electrons near fermi level can conduct in metals.How can electrons behave like this? I can't figure out why only...

Can liquid helium is superfluidity state conduct heat infinitely fast? I thought I have seen this is a paper somewhere a long time ago, but now I am not sure about that.

In a blog post of Matt Strassler we are told about the top quark, "when the Higgs field is not zero, its presence, and the fact that it has a direct interaction with the top-left and the top-right, forces the top-left to convert over to a top-right, and back again. How often does this happen...

Acoording to the internet, majorana fermions are particles which its antiparticle is itself. But shouldn't particles and antiparticles annihilate each other? Then how could such particle exist or being predicted?

Hi, I just started a book on QFT and one of the first things that was done was switch from labeling states with their individual particles and instead label states by the number of particles in each momentum eigenstate. In addition, some "algebras" (not sure if they qualify by the mathematical...

In nonrelativistic QM, we usually describe the Hilbert space by choosing a complete set of commuting observables, so that the set of states that are eigenstates of all the observables can be used as a basis. For instance, the "wavefunction" is the state as expressed in terms of "states" with...

If the Higgs Field could exist with constant 246GeV across all of space. How come the Dirac Sea couldn't exist? If the Universe can easily accommodate Higgs Field.. why not Dirac Sea for all particles. Also how does the Dirac Sea of bosons work? Like W+, W-? Any idea? I was asking about the...

The spin magnetic moment of a charged, spin-1/2 particle is $$g \frac e {2m} \frac \hbar 2$$ where g is the g-factor (2 for any particle in tree-level approximation, 2.00231930436182 for electron), e is charge m is mass ##\frac \hbar 2## is spin But with zero mass this expression does not make...

What the title says. Acting on a fermionic state with the number operator to a power is like acting with the fermionic operator itself. Does this allow us to define ## \hat{n}^k=\hat{n} ##? Or is there any picky mathematical reason not to do so?

<Moved from a technical forum, therefore no template> For two non-interacting fermions confined to a 1d box of length L. Construct the antisymmetric wave functions (Slater determinant) and compare ground state energies of two systems, one in the singlet state and the other in the triplet state...

Hello, I'm a bit confused about the eigenvalues of the second quantized fermionic field operators \psi(x)_a. Since these operators satisfy the condition \{\psi(x)_a, \psi(y)_b\} = 0 the eigenvalues should also anti-commute? Does this mean that the eigenvalues of \psi(x)_a are...

One of the Feynman rules of QED is the following: For a closed fermionic loop, the Feynman rule is to start at an arbitrary vertex or propagator, follow the line until we get back to the starting point, multiply all the vertices and the propagators in the order of the line, then take the trace...

The momentum-space fermion propagator in the free Dirac theory is given by The arrow on the fermion propagator is said to represent the flow of charge. How can we derive this statement quantitatively from the Dirac Lagrangian? What is the quantitative form of the charge being referred to here?

We know lepton conservation law, that means multiple neutrinos can not be consolidate to big single neutrino. But photon is boson not lepton, no need of conservation, does that mean it is possible to combine or fuse a bunch of photons into ONE big photon, or say, more energetic photon, i.e...

if there were no higgs field, would the second and third generation of fermions, such as the top quark, be exactly the same mass as first generation? is the coupling between the top quark and the higgs field the sole reason the top quark is heaviest SM particle? is there a reason the top...

It is natural to make quantum fields out of electromagnetic wave or even the weak force. But is there experimental proof for the need to create fermion fields like separate electron fields for the electron.. quark fields for the quarks.. When de Broglie tried to propose matter wave from analogy...

Homework Statement For a gas of N fermions with mass M in 2D in a region of area A in thermal equilibrium at temperature T, we are asked to find ##U/N## in fuction of ##T## and ##a=A/N##. The attempt at a solution I used ##U=\sum(<n_i>\epsilon_i) = \sum(\exp(\beta(\mu-\epsilon_i))\epsilon_i...

If A and B are fermionic operators, and T the time-ordering operator, then the standard definition is T(AB) = AB, if B precedes A = - BA, if A precedes B. Why is there a negative sign? If A and B are space-like separated then it makes sense to assume that A and B anticommute. But...

Homework Statement This problem is from Lahiri and Pal (2nd edition) Exercise 1.4: Suppose in a system there are operators which obey anticommutation relations ##[a_{r},a^{\dagger}_{s}]_{+}\equiv a_{r}a^{\dagger}_{s}+a^{\dagger}_{s}a_{r}=\delta_{rs}## and ##[a_{r},a_{s}]_{+}=0,## for...

Consider a system of 2 identical fermions. $$\psi_{k_1,k_2}(x_1,x_2,m_1, m_2) = \langle x_1\,x_2\,m_1\,m_2\mid \psi \rangle$$ According to what I have read we can construct a state with the right antisymmetry properties by $$\psi_{k_1,k_2}(x_1,x_2,m_1, m_2) =...

Wikipedia: The theory of causal fermion systems is an approach to describe fundamental physics. It gives quantum mechanics,general relativity and quantum field theory as limiting cases and is therefore a candidate for a unified physical theory. It seems possible this might be progress. A step...

Homework Statement [/B] Consider the following action: $$\begin{align}S = \int \mathrm{d}^4 z \; \bar\psi_i(z) \, (\mathrm{i} {\not{\!\partial}} - m)_{ij} \, \psi_j(z)\end{align}$$ where ##\psi_i## is a Dirac spinor with Dirac index ##i## (summation convention for repeated indices). Now I would...

In four dimensions, left and right chiral fermion can be written as \psi_L= \begin{pmatrix} \psi_+\\ 0 \end{pmatrix},\qquad \psi_R= \begin{pmatrix} 0\\ \psi_- \end{pmatrix}, respectively, where \psi_+ and \psi_- are some two components spinors(Weyl spinors?). In this representation, the...

Hello, everyone. I have a one question which is related to the fermion masses. If you see my latex mathematics, you can know what I want to say. Here, L means SU(2) left-handed lepton doublets and R means SU(2) right-handed lepton singlets. So I am too much confusing to understand this...

Hi all, I am currently writing a report about superconductors, and am currently reading about how the band gap shows that single electrons are not the charge carriers responsible for superconductivity. However, I was confused when I read that electrons are fermions and as such there are no band...

Homework Statement Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution I've started from writing out the amplitude. Here I know that fermion has definite helicity so I can't sum over spins but I should input explicit forms of spinors. Am I correct? How to do this? I would be grateful for helping me...

Problem Question My question isn't an entire homework problem, but rather for a certain mathematical step in the problem which I assume to be very simple. The problem is dealing with interacting fermion systems using second quantization formulas. I am essentially following my notes from class...

Homework Statement Consider left-handed fermions in two spacetime dimensions ##(t,x)##: ##\psi_L=\frac{1}{2}(1-\gamma_5)\psi_D## with ##J_0^\epsilon(t,x)=\psi_L^+(x+\epsilon)\psi_L(x-\epsilon)##. (a). Use canonical equal-time anti-commutation relations for fermions to compute...

Things I don't understand: What do they mean by "two spin-1/2 doublets and a spin-3/2 quadruplet"? Why do they use the two flavours "+2/3e and -1/3e" ?

Say I have a scalar field which decays into to a fermion - anti fermion pair which then interact in a closed loop to produce two photons. How would I evaluate this? Can I just follow the loop backwards from any of the two photon vertices and just write vertex factor, propogator, vertex factor...

hi fellas, I have been working on Chandrashekhar limit, and I found a mass-radius relationship for the nonrelativistic fermi gases using this formula and i got the graph of this R=((18pi)^(2/3))/10 *H^2/(GmM^(1/3) ) (0.5/n)^(5/3) where H=(6.63*10^-34)/2pi G=6.67*10^-11 m=9.11*10^-31...

If we have two fermion operators with a known anti-commutator AB+BA, what do we do if we find ourselves with AB-BA in an equation? Does this automatically vanish for fermions? if not, is there anything we can say about in general?

For bosons we define states as eg. ln> = l1 0 1 ... > where the numbers denote how many particles belong to the j'th orbital. And similarly for fermions. We then define creation and anihillation operators which raise and lower the number of particles in the j'th orbital: c_j...