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Response functions for the quantum harmonic oscillator

Physics Asked by pongoS on February 4, 2021

I’m going through problems in Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur, and have been trying to understand a problem on the forced quantum oscillator [$L = frac{1}{2}dot{x}(t)^2-frac{1}{2}momega^2x(t)^2+f(t)x(t)$ ] and response functions.

The response function is

$$
langlepsi(t)|hat{x}(t)|psi(t)rangle = int_{-infty}^infty mathrm{d}t’chi(t-t’)f(t’)
$$

I want to show, using the interaction representation, that to first order in the force function $f_I(t)$

$$
|psi_I(t)rangle = |0rangle + iint_{-infty}^t mathrm{d}t’f_I(t’)hat{x}_I(t’)|0rangle
$$

Here is what I’ve done so far:

I started by taylor expanding the interacting ket:
$$ |psi_I(t)rangle = e^{i hat{H_0}(t)t}|psi(t)rangle = |psi(t)rangle + i hat{H_0}(t)t|psi(t)rangle+O(H_0^2)
$$

but I am confused about how to relate the wave function to the ground state, and how to use the information I have about the response function. When you have an expression for $|psirangle$ there is a procedure for finding the expectation value. I don’t know how to go the other way and around and extract a ket from the response function.

I also note that I can convert the response function to the interaction picture and it will have the same value, and that I can change f(t) to the interaction picture $f_I(t) = e^{i H_0 t}f(t)e^{-i H_0 t} =f(t) + O(H_0^2)$ since $H_0$ and f(t) commute.

Related: linear response for a simple harmonic oscillator

One Answer

The insight I was missing was that the $e^{i hat{H_0}(t)} t|psi(t)rangle$ can be thought of more abstractly as $U(t)|psi(0)rangle $, where $U(t) = e^{-i hat{H}(t)t}. When the ket starts out in the ground state, doing the taylor expansion and subsitution of the interaction picture for f and x works.

Answered by pongoS on February 4, 2021

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