Monday, November 7, 2022

Field Quantization zero point energy

Taking up the eigenvalue equation for $\hat{H}(\hat{a}\vert n \rangle)$

\begin{equation} \hat{H} \left(\hat{a} \vert n \rangle \right)=  \left( E_n - \hbar\omega \right) \left( \hat{a} \vert n \rangle \right) \end{equation}

Applying the annihilation operator repeatedly the energy eigenvalue will decrease in integer multiples of $\hbar \omega$, the energy of harmonic oscillator must always be positive, therefore exists a lowest energy eigenvalue corresponding to eigenstate $\vert 0 \rangle$. The eigenvalue equation for the ground state is:

\begin{equation}\require{cancel} \hat{H}\vert 0 \rangle = \hbar\omega \left( \hat{a}^\dagger \hat{a} + \frac{1}{2} \right) \vert 0 \rangle = \cancelto{0}{ \hbar\omega \hat{n}\vert 0 \rangle} + \frac{1}{2}\hbar\omega \vert 0 \rangle = \frac{1}{2}\hbar\omega \vert 0 \rangle  \end{equation}

So the lowest energy eigenvalue is $E_0 = \cfrac{\hbar\omega}{2}$. Since $E_{n+1}= E_n + \hbar\omega$, the energy eigenvalues are:

\begin{equation}E_n = \hbar\omega \left(  n + \frac{1}{2} \right)  \end{equation}


Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dr. Carlos Herman Wiechers Medina for their support, this post is based on the notes from the Quantum Optics class.

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I am an Engineering Physicist, graduated with academic excellence as the top of my class. I have experience programming in several languages, including C++, MATLAB, and especially Python. I have worked on projects in image and signal processing, as well as in machine learning and data analysis.

Field Quantization zero point energy

Taking up the eigenvalue equation for $\hat{H}(\hat{a}\vert n \rangle)$ \begin{equation} \hat{H} \left(\hat{a} \vert n \rangle \right)=  \le...

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