The discussion revolves around the nature and interpretation of annihilation and creation operators in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Participants explore whether these operators represent physical processes or observables, and the implications of their mathematical properties.
Participants express differing views on whether annihilation and creation operators represent physical processes or observables, indicating a lack of consensus on this topic.
Participants highlight that the operators in question are not self-adjoint or unitary, which raises questions about their role in representing observables in quantum mechanics.
They don't represent physical processes or observables (they're not self adjoint or unitary). They're just formal operators useful in quantum field theory.KevinMcHugh said:Summary: These operators increase/decrease occupation number by one particle. What observable do these operators represent?
I'm just curious what physical processes these operators represent. Since particles are created/destroyed in pairs, do they have to applied twice to describe an actual process?
Only self-adjoint operators do. And even then there are questions over whether all do.KevinMcHugh said:Thank you DarMM. I was under the assumption operators represent observables in QM.