I Understanding the Dirac Delta Identity to Fetter and Walecka's Formula

thatboi
Messages
130
Reaction score
20
Hi all,
I'm trying to verify the following formula (from Fetter and Walecka, just below equation (12.38)) but it doesn't quite make sense to me:
1698982648509.png

where
1698982665862.png
and
1698982691234.png

The authors are using the fact that ##\delta(ax) = |a|^{-1}\delta(x)## but to me, it seems like the ##\textbf{q}\cdot\textbf{k}-\frac{1}{2}q^{2}## are missing factors of ##\frac{1}{k_{F}^2}## right?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
From the definition you copied you get
$$q_0=\frac{\hbar k_F^2 \nu}{m}$$ and thus
$$\delta(q_0-\omega_{\boldsymbol{qk}})=\delta \left (\frac{\hbar k_F^2}{m} \nu -\frac{\hbar}{m} (\boldsymbol{q} \cdot \boldsymbol{k} + \frac{1}{2} q^2) \right)=\frac{m}{\hbar k_F^2} \delta \left (\nu- \frac{\boldsymbol{q} \cdot \boldsymbol{k} + q^2/2}{k_F^2} \right).$$
 
vanhees71 said:
From the definition you copied you get
$$q_0=\frac{\hbar k_F^2 \nu}{m}$$ and thus
$$\delta(q_0-\omega_{\boldsymbol{qk}})=\delta \left (\frac{\hbar k_F^2}{m} \nu -\frac{\hbar}{m} (\boldsymbol{q} \cdot \boldsymbol{k} + \frac{1}{2} q^2) \right)=\frac{m}{\hbar k_F^2} \delta \left (\nu- \frac{\boldsymbol{q} \cdot \boldsymbol{k} + q^2/2}{k_F^2} \right).$$
Ok cool that was what I got as well. Perhaps I missed some other definition along the way.
 
I am not sure if this belongs in the biology section, but it appears more of a quantum physics question. Mike Wiest, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Wellesley College in the US. In 2024 he published the results of an experiment on anaesthesia which purported to point to a role of quantum processes in consciousness; here is a popular exposition: https://neurosciencenews.com/quantum-process-consciousness-27624/ As my expertise in neuroscience doesn't reach up to an ant's ear...
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
I am reading WHAT IS A QUANTUM FIELD THEORY?" A First Introduction for Mathematicians. The author states (2.4 Finite versus Continuous Models) that the use of continuity causes the infinities in QFT: 'Mathematicians are trained to think of physical space as R3. But our continuous model of physical space as R3 is of course an idealization, both at the scale of the very large and at the scale of the very small. This idealization has proved to be very powerful, but in the case of Quantum...
Back
Top