A How Does One Calculate the Time Evolution of a Photon in a Vacuum State?

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The discussion focuses on calculating the time evolution of a photon in a vacuum state using the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. The time evolution operator is applied to the initial state |0⟩|1⟩, resulting in the expression |ψ(t)⟩ = cos(ωt/2)|0⟩|1⟩ + sin(ωt/2)|1⟩|0⟩. The key point is that the Hamiltonian can be expressed as H = ℏω(a†a + b†b + 1/2), which is crucial for the calculation. The user initially misapplied the time evolution formula, leading to confusion. The correct approach clarifies the relationship between the Hamiltonian and the time evolution of the photon state.
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How to evolve one photon using hamiltonian as beam splitter
During time evolution of one photon with vacuum state with hamiltonian as a^†b+b^†a, the answer is cos(t/ℏ)|0,1⟩+isin(t/ℏ)|1,0⟩. But i don't know how to do calculation to get this answer. Can someone please help me?
I tried to do this calculation:
|0⟩|1⟩(t)=e−iHtℏ|0⟩|1⟩
=(cos(tH/ℏ)−isin(tH/ℏ)) |0⟩|1⟩
=[cos(t/ℏ)−isin(t/ℏ)] H|0⟩|1⟩
=[cos(t/ℏ)−isin(t/ℏ)] [|0⟩|1⟩+i|1⟩|0⟩]

How to proceed?
 
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A:The Hamiltonian you are using is the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian, which can be written as $$H=\hbar \omega (a^{\dagger}a+b^{\dagger}b+1/2).$$For this Hamiltonian, the time evolution of a state $|\psi(0)\rangle$ is given by $$|\psi(t)\rangle=e^{-iHt/\hbar}|\psi(0)\rangle.$$You are considering the initial state to be $|\psi(0)\rangle=|0\rangle|1\rangle$. Applying the time evolution operator to this state, we have\begin{align*}|\psi(t)\rangle&=e^{-iHt/\hbar}|0\rangle|1\rangle\\&=e^{-i\hbar \omega t/2}|0\rangle|1\rangle-ie^{-i\hbar \omega t/2}|1\rangle|0\rangle\\&=\cos(\omega t/2)|0\rangle|1\rangle+\sin(\omega t/2)|1\rangle|0\rangle\end{align*}This is the answer you are looking for. Note that I have used $\hbar \omega$ instead of $t/\hbar$ to make it consistent with the Hamiltonian.
 
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