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Some basic concepts in quantum field theory part 1

Physics Asked on July 31, 2021

I have some problems about basic concepts of quantum field theory.

First let’s look at Klein-Gordon field.

Klein-Gordon equation has two branches of solutions, one of which is positive frequency and the other is
negative frequency. The solution can be written as
$$psi(x)=int frac{d^{3}p}{(2pi)^{3}}frac{1}{sqrt{2E_{p}}}(a_{p}e^{-ipx+iomega t}+b_{p}e^{-ipx-iomega t}).$$

Then we need to quantize above solution. In the exercise part of both books, Peskin and Srednicki, the complex scalar field operator is written as

$$hat{psi}(x)=int frac{d^{3}p}{(2pi)^{3}}frac{1}{sqrt{2E_{p}}}(hat{a}_{p}e^{-ipx}+hat{b}_{p}^{+}e^{ipx})tag{1}$$

The question is:

Why equ(1) is not written as
$$hat{psi}(x)=int frac{d^{3}p}{(2pi)^{3}}frac{1}{sqrt{2E_{p}}}(hat{a}_{p}e^{-ipx}+hat{b}_{p}e^{ipx})~?$$ Is this because when quantizing negative frequency, annihilation operator must be replaced by creation operator and $-p$ by $p$ in exponent?

One Answer

Of course, you can give any name for coefficients in field expansion. But when you will analyze commutation relations:

$$ [psi(x), psi^{dagger}(y)] sim hbar delta(x-y) $$

For your choice of "names" you will obtain the another commutation relations:

$$ [b_p, b^dagger_k] = delta(p-k) $$

So you see, that $b_p$ is creation operator, $b^dagger_k$ is annihilation operator. But usually physics choose reverse conventions. Due to these, in all books, peoples use (1).

Please, ask for clarification, if you need.

Answered by Nikita on July 31, 2021

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