1

Physics 7440 (Fall 2012), Problem Set # 5 Solutoins

1. (a) We just need to plug in...
_
a
k
, a

_
=
__
M

(k)
2
u
k
+
i
_
2M

(k)
p
k
,
_
M

(k

)
2
u
k

i
_
2M

(k

)
p
k

_
(1)
=
i
2

(k)

(k

)
[u
k
, p
k

] +
i
2

(k

(k)
[p
k
, u
k

] (2)
=
i
2

(k)

(k

)
(i

kk
) +
i
2

(k

(k)
(i

kk
) (3)
=

kk
. (4)
And...
_
a
k
, a
k

_
=
__
M

(k)
2
u
k
+
i
_
2M

(k)
p
k
,
_
M

(k

)
2
u
k

+
i
_
2M

(k

)
p
k

_
(5)
=
i
2

(k)

(k

)
[u
k
, p
k

] +
i
2

(k

(k)
[p
k
, u
k

] (6)
=
i
2

(k)

(k

)
(i

k,k
) +
i
2

(k

(k)
(i

k,k
) (7)
= 0. (8)
In the last line we used the fact that

(k) =

(k).
(b) First we can solve for u
k
and p
k
in terms of the raising and lowering operators:
u
k
=

2M

(k)
(a
k
+a

k
) (9)
p
k
= i
_
M

(k)
2
(a
k
a

k
). (10)
Now we plug this into the Hamiltonian:
H =

_
1
2M
p

k
p
k
+
M[

(k)]
2
2
u

k
u
k
_
(11)
=

(k)
4
(a

k
a
k
)(a
k
a

k
) +

(k)
4
(a

k
+a
k
)(a
k
+a

k
)
_
(12)
=

(k)
2
_
a

k
a
k
+a
k
a

k
_
(13)
=

(k)
2
_
a

k
a
k
+a
k
a

k
_
(14)
=

(k)
2
_
a

k
a
k
+a

k
a
k
+ 1
_
(15)
=

(k)(a

k
a
k
+ 1/2) (16)
(c) We can start with the expression for u(0) in terms of raising and lowering operators,
u

(0) =
1

k,
S

(k)

2M

(k)
_
a

(k) +a

(k)

. (17)
2
Plugging this in, we have

0
|u(0)
2
|
0
=
0
|u

(0)u

(0)|
0
(18)
=
1
N

2M

k,k

(k)S

(k

)
_

(k)

(k

)
0|
_
a

(k) +a

(k)
_
a

(k

) +a

(k

|0 (19)
To evaluate the expectation value above, note that
0
|a

(k)a

(k

)|
0
=
0
|a

(k)a

(k

)|
0
= 0, using
Eq. 7 of the homework. So we have

0
|
_
a

(k) +a

(k)
_
a

(k

) +a

(k

|
0
=
0
|
_
a

(k)a

(k

) +a

(k)a

(k

)|
0
. (20)
The second term vanishes, because a

(k

)|
0
= 0. To evaluate the rst term, we can use the commutation
relations to rewrite
a

(k)a

(k

) =

k,k
+a

(k

)a

(k), (21)
so we have

0
|
_
a

(k) +a

(k)
_
a

(k

) +a

(k

|
0
=
0
|
_
a

(k)a

(k

)|
0
(22)
=
0
|
_

k,k
+a

(k

)a

(k)

|
0
(23)
=

k,k

0
|
0
(24)
=

k,k
. (25)
Putting this back in, we have

0
|u(0)
2
|
0
=
1
N

2M

k,k

(k)S

(k

)
_

(k)

(k

k,k
(26)
=
1
N

2M

k,
S

(k)S

(k)
_

(k)

(k)
(27)
=
1
N

2M

k,
S

(k)S

(k)

(k)
(28)
=
1
N

2M

k,
1

(k)
(29)
=
a
3

2M

_
d
3
k
(2)
3
1

(k)
. (30)
Here, the integral is taken over the Brillouin zone.
(d) Note that this is dierent from what we found in the nite-temperature classical case in that case, there
was a factor of 1/
2
inside the integral, which gives a stonger singularity at k = 0. Here the integral is
certainly nite in 3d in spherical coordinates, schematically, the integral at small-k looks like

0
|u(0)
2
|
0

_
dkk
2
1
k
, (31)
which is nite. The analogous integral is still nite in 2d, but diverges in 1d, since

0
|u(0)
2
|
0

1d

_
dk
1
k
. (32)
Now lets discuss dierences from the classical result. In 3d, the classical result predicts
0
|u(0)
2
|
0
= 0
at T = 0. However, this cant really be correct, because we know that there is zero point motion. The fact
that we found
0
|u(0)
2
|
0
to be nonzero is simply because the quantum calculation takes the zero point
motion into account.
In 2d, the dierence is more dramatic. We found that
0
|u(0)
2
|
0
diverged for T > 0 in the classical
calculation, but here it is nite at
0
|u(0)
2
|
0
. Physically this makes sense there are more uctuations
at nite temperature than T = 0, and in 2d evidently those uctuations are enough to make
0
|u(0)
2
|
0

3
diverge (and to destroy crystalline order). What the present result tells us is that, in 2d, quantum uctu-
ations alone are not enough to destroy crystalline order. While it is not obvious from calculations we have
done, it turns out that
0
|u(0)
2
|
0
actually diverges in 2d as soon as the temperature becomes nonzero
this can be checked by repeating the quantum calculation, but at nite temperature. So in 2d there is
really a qualitative dierence between zero and nonzero temperature.
In 1d,
0
|u(0)
2
|
0
diverges both for T = 0 and for T > 0, however the divergence is weaker at T = 0
(a weaker singularity in the integral), which we might expect since at T = 0 we have only quantum
uctuations. So in 1d, even just quantum uctuations destroy crystalline order.
All of these results are another manifestation of the fact that order gets weaker as the spatial dimension
gets lower.
2. Ashcroft & Mermin 2.1
(a) Let N be the total number of electrons in the two-dimensional (2d) electron gas. Then
N = total number of lled states, inside the Fermi sea. (33)
In 2d, the fermi sea is a circle of radius k
F
in k-space. Following the arguments of A+M p.34-35, but for
two dimensions, the number of states per unit k-space area (not including spin) is A/(2)
2
, where A is the
total area of the system. Then we have
N = 2(number states per k-space area)( area of Fermi sea ) (34)
= 2
_
A
(2)
2
_
(k
2
F
). (35)
(The factor of 2 in front of both these expressions accounts for spin.) Therefore,
n =
N
A
=
k
2
F
2
. (36)
(b) Recall that in three dimensions, r
s
is dened as the radius of a sphere, whose volume is equal to the volume
per electron. We generalize this to 2d by saying r
s
is the radius of a circle, whose area is equal to the area
per electron. Therefore
r
2
s
= ( area per electron ) =
A
N
=
1
n
. (37)
Using the result from part (a), we have
r
s
=
1

n
=
1
_
(k
2
F
/2)
=

2
k
F
. (38)
(c) We start from the denition of the density of states, and proceed to evaluate the integral. We shall need
to use the following result for k-space sums in 2d, in the limit of large system size (A ):
1
A

_
d
2
k
(2)
2
. (39)
This result can be derived in the same way as the corresponding 3d result.
For the density of states we have
D() =
2
A

k
(
k
) (40)
= 2
_
d
2
k
(2)
2
(
k
) (41)
= 2
_
d
2
k
(2)
2

_


2
k
2
2m
_
(42)
=
2(2)
(2)
2
_

0
dk k
_


2
k
2
2m
_
(43)
=
1

_

0
dk k
_


2
k
2
2m
_
. (44)
4
We now make the change of variables u =
2
k
2
/2m, resulting in
D() =
m

2
_

0
du ( u). (45)
For > 0, the delta function integrates to unity. However for < 0, the argument of the delta function is
never zero, and the delta function integrates to zero. So the result is
D() =
_
m/(
2
) , > 0
0 , < 0
. (46)
(d) Recall that
n =
_

d D()f(), (47)
where f() is the Fermi function. In this part of the problem were supposed to evaluate this using the
Sommerfeld expansion. The general form of the Sommerfeld expansion is given in A+M Eq. (2.69), and
for the present case we have
_

d D()f() =
_

d D() +

n=1
a
n
(k
B
T)
2n
_
d
2n1
d
2n1
D()
_
=
. (48)
Now, because D() is constant except at = 0, its derivatives all vanish (except at = 0). For any
reasonably low temperature, we should expect
F
= 0, so all the above derivatives vanish, and the
Sommerfeld expansion simply gives
n =
_

d D(). (49)
Therefore,
n(T) =
_

d D() = n(T = 0) =
_
F

d D(). (50)
(This is the statement that density is constant as a function of temperature.) The only way for this to be
consistent is if
(T) =
F
. (51)
(e) Now we will directly evaluate the integral of Eq. (47) above. We have, plugging in the form of the Fermi
function,
n =
m

2
_

0
d
e
()/kBT
+ 1
. (52)
We make the change of variables u = ( )/k
B
T to obtain
n =
mk
B
T

2
_

/kBT
du
e
u
+ 1
. (53)
While there is probably a more systematic way to do it, I found it easiest to do the integral by simply
guessing the form of a function whose derivative is equal to the integrand, 1/(e
u
+ 1). The result is
_
du
e
u
+ 1
= ln(e
u
+ 1), (54)
which gives the result
n =
mk
B
T

2
ln
_
e
/kBT
+ 1
_
. (55)
5
Now we just need to express this in the form given in A+M. Using the fact that
2
n/m =
F
, we have

F
= k
B
T ln
_
e
/kBT
+ 1
_
(56)
= k
B
T ln
_
e
/kBT
_
1 +e
/kBT
_
_
(57)
= +k
B
T ln
_
1 +e
/kBT
_
, (58)
as desired.
(f) First, we express the result of part (e) in the form

F
= k
B
T ln
_
1 +e
/kBT
_
. (59)
We would like to get an estimate of
F
, the deviation of from its zero temperature value. We assume
that k
B
T
F
for any temperature of interest. When this assumption holds we also expect
F
, so
that e
/kBT
1. Then we can expand the logarithm in powers of e
/kBT
we stop at leading order to
obtain

F
k
B
Te
/kBT
. (60)
Since we expect
F
, it is reasonable to replace by
F
in the expression above. This leads to our
estimate:

F
(k
B
T)e
F/kBT
. (61)
This result says that
F
is exponentially smaller than k
B
T this is a tiny correction and is not
signicant. The reason the Sommerfeld expansion failed here is that the density of states D() is not an
analytic function on the entire real axis it is discontinuous at = 0. This discontinuity is not captured
in the Sommerfeld expansion, but does appear (albeit as a tiny correction) when the integral is evaluated
exactly.
It is worth noting that a similar issue presumably arises in 3d there, again, D() is not analytic at
= 0. However, in 3d, any exponentially small temperature dependence coming from this nonanalyticity
is completely dominated by the T
2
temperature dependence given by the (nonvanishing) leading term in
the Sommerfeld expansion.
3. (a) The rst thing to understand is the single-particle spectrum of the trapped fermions we just have to solve
the three-dimensional (3d) Harmonic oscillator, with Hamiltonian H = p
2
/2m+(1/2)m
2
t
r
2
. The energy
eigenstates are labeled by the vector of integers n = (n
x
, n
y
, n
z
), where n
x
= 0, 1, 2, . . . , and similarly for
n
y
and n
z
. The energy of the state with quantum numbers n is

n
=
t
(n
x
+n
y
+n
z
). (62)
Here I have ignored the zero-point energy in this problem it will not be important, as it will only give an
overall shift of the chemical potential.
We dene () to be the total number of states with energies
n
. We have N = (
F
), since the
number of particles is obtained by lling all states up to the Fermi energy. Let us calculate ():
() =

n
(
n
). (63)
In the limit N 1, we can replace the sum on n by an integral as follows

_

0
dn
x
_

0
dn
y
_

0
dn
z

_
d
3
n. (64)
This replacement is legitimate because the sum in Eq. (63) will be dominated by contributions from large
n
x
, n
y
and n
z
. If n
x
1, then the discrete change n
x
n
x
+ 1 can reasonably be thought of as an
innitesimal change, i.e. n
x
n
x
+ dn
x
. Therefore we approximate n by a continuous variable, and
replace the sum by an integral.
6
We have
() =
_
d
3
n
_

t
(n
x
+n
y
+n
z
)
_
. (65)
So the integrand is equal to unity in the region n
x
+ n
y
+ n
z
/
t
, and is zero otherwise therefore
() is just the volume of this region. Dening = /
t
> 0, we then have
() =
_

0
dn
z
_
nz
0
dn
y
_
nzny
0
dn
x
=

3
6
=

3
6
3

3
t
. (66)
Note that () = 0 for < 0, since there are no states at negative energy. Then
N = (
F
) =

3
F
6
3

3
t
, (67)
and

F
=
t
(6N)
1/3
. (68)
(b) The density of states D() is given by
D() =
d()
d
. (69)
This allows for the usual interpretation that the quantity
D()d =
d()
d
d (70)
is the total number of states in the interval [, +d]. Using the result of part (a),
D() =

2
2
3

3
t
, (71)
for > 0, and D() = 0 for < 0.
(c) At nite temperature, the total number of fermions is given by
N =
_

d D()f(). (72)
We shall evaluate this integral at low temperature via the Sommerfeld expansion, and use it to determine
the chemical potential (T). Carrying out the Sommerfeld expansion to leading order we have
N =
_

0
dD() +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
D

(). (73)
As we did in class for the free electron gas, we let (T) =
F
+ c(k
B
T)
2
+ O(k
B
T)
4
. Keeping terms up
through order (k
B
T)
2
, we have
N =
_
F
0
d D() +c(k
B
T)
2
D(
F
) +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
D

(
F
). (74)
Noting that N =
_
F
0
d D(), we obtain the following expression for the constant c:
c =

2
6
D

(
F
)
D(
F
)
=

2
3
F
(75)
Therefore
(T) =
F


2
3
F
(k
B
T)
2
+O(k
B
T)
4
. (76)
7
(d) The total energy is given by
E(T, N) =
_

d D()f(). (77)
We evaluate this using the Sommerfeld expansion, which, up to terms of order T
2
, gives
E(T, N) =
_

0
d D() +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
[D() +D

()]. (78)
Using the result from part (c) above, and keeping only terms up through order (k
B
T)
2
, we have
E(T, N) =
_
F
0
d D() +c(k
B
T)
2

F
D(
F
) +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
[D(
F
) +
F
D

(
F
)] (79)
= E(0, N) +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
D(
F
). (80)
The ground state energy is
E(0, N) =
_
F
0
d D() (81)
=

4
F
8
3

3
t
=
6
4/3
8

t
N
4/3
, (82)
and we have
E(T, N) =
6
4/3
8
(
t
)N
4/3
+

2
2 6
1/3
(k
B
T)
2

t
N
2/3
+O(T
4
). (83)
(e) The specic heat is given by
C(T, N) =
_
E
T
_
N
=

2
6
1/3
k
2
B
T

t
N
2/3
. (84)