PH 652

Homework Assignment 3
Coherent States
Attachments:
1. Blasiak et al. 2007
2. Glauber 1963
3. Mathematica notebook NormalOrdering
Introduction
In terms of the usual raising and lowering operators for the simple harmonic oscillator,
recall that
x =
_
h
2m
(a

+a), (1a)
p = i
_
mh
2
(a

a), (1b)
with [a, a

] = 1.
In an energy eigenstate |n, we already know that x and p are both zero. There-
fore,

2
x
= n|x
2
|n (2a)
=
h
2m
n|(aa

+a

a)|n (2b)
=
h
2m
n|(2a

a + 1)|n (2c)
=
h
2m
(2n + 1), (2d)
where [a, a

] = 1 was used in going from equation (2b) to (2c) to rewrite aa

in terms of
a

a, whose action on |n is immediately known. In the same way,

2
p
= n|p
2
|n (3a)
=
mh
2
(2n + 1), (3b)
so that

p
=
h
2
(2n + 1)
h
2
. (4)
Hence, the ground state |0 is also a minimum uncertainty state, and this is traceable in the
above derivation (e.g., eq. [2c]) to the fact that a

a|0 = 0 and ultimately that a|0 = 0.

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Noting that |0 is also an eigenstate of a (with eigenvalue zero), a natural question
is whether other eigenstates | of the lowering operator a are also minimum uncertainty
states. These eigenstates are called coherent states, for reasons that well show below.
The eigenvalue equation for a is a| = |, where, since a is not Hermitian, we
must recognize that will be complex in general. Taking the Hermitian adjoint of both
sides, we have that |a

|. At this point it is important to realize that we know

the action of a

on the bra vector |, and not the corresponding ket |. Therefore, in

evaluating |F(a, a

)|, where F(a, a

) is some function of a and a

, we need to rewrite
F using the commutator [a, a

] = 1 such that all the raising operators are to the left of all
the lowering operators. In this way, the a

s will act on the bra vector | while the as

will operate on the ket. This is called normal ordering, and is discussed more in Section
II.B of Blasiak et al. 2007 . While a straightforward process, it can involve a lot of work
if F is a complicated function. The Mathematica notebook NormalOrdering can be used
to work out the ordering in this case.
1. Energy basis expansion [10 points]
(a) Find
x

p
for the coherent state |.
(b) Expanding in the energy basis, we have that | =

n
|nn|. Remembering that
|n =
(a

)
n

n!
|0, (5)
nd n| in terms of and the constant 0|.
(c) Normalizing the coherent state such that | = 1, nd the constant 0| and show
that
| = e

1
2
||
2

n=0

n!
|n. (6)
Hence, coherent states are superpositions of stationary states and thus do not have
denite energy. In fact, the probability P
n
of being found with energy E
n
= h(n +
1/2) is given by a Poisson Distribution (which appears fortuitous and without any
deep physical signicance).
(d) Combine equations (5) and (6) to show that
| = e

1
2
||
2
e
a

|0 (7a)
= D()|0. (7b)
While Schrodinger was the rst to study coherent states, he did so within the for-
malism of wave mechanics using wave functions in coordinate space. The more general
treatment was due to Glauber, in a series of articles spanning 1963 to 1965. See Section III
of Glauber 1963, for example.
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Displacement Operator
Equation (7) illustrates that a coherent is some kind of shifted (in the Hilbert space)
ground state. Hence, the operator D is called the displacement operator. Sometimes we
want to make D more symmetric, and this can be accomplished by rst noting that
e

a
|0 =
_
1

a +
(

a)
2
2!
+
_
|0
= |0, (8)
since a|0 = 0. Hence, we can write
D() = e

1
2
||
2
e
a

a
. (9)
One would like to combine the exponentials into one, but extreme care must be taken
(remember Section 3.4 of the text).
2. Displacement operator [5 points] Show that
D() = e
a

a
(10)
and that D is unitary. Therefore, a coherent state is specically a rotated (in the Hilbert
space) ground state.
The displacement operator can be written in another form, which is convenient for
determining the wavefunction of a coherent state. From Problem 1, we know that
x =
_
h
2m
(

+)
=
_
h
2m
2 R{}
x
0
(11a)
p = i
_
mh
2
(

)
=
_
mh
2
2 I{}
p
0
. (11b)
With these denitions of x
0
and p
0
, the displacement operator can also be written as
D() = exp(a

a) = exp
_

__
m
2 h
_
x i
p
m
_
_

__
m
2h
_
x +i
p
m
_
__
= exp
_
i
h
(p
0
x x
0
p)
_
. (12)
3
Coherent State Wavefunction
The wavefunction of a coherent state

(x

) = x

| = x

|D()|0. If [A, B] is a
constant, the CBH Theorem can be written as
e

1
2
[A,B]
e
A
e
B
= e
A+B
.
Hence,

(x

) = x

|D()|0
= x

|e
i
h
(p
0
xx
0
p)
|0
= x

|e

i
2 h
x
0
p
0
e
i
h
p
0
x
e

i
h
x
0
p
|0
= e

i
2 h
x
0
p
0
x

|e
i
h
p
0
x
e

i
h
x
0
p
|0 (13)
Expanding exp(ip
0
x/h) as a power series, x

| exp(ip
0
x/h) = x

| exp(ip
0
x

/h). Taking the

constant exp(ip
0
x

/h) term out of the inner product, and using

x

|f(p)| = f
_
h
i

_
x

|
for any state | and power-law expandable function f, we then have

(x

) = e

i
2 h
x
0
p
0
e
i
h
p
0
x

e
x
0

0
(x

). (14)
The constant phase factor in front is irrelevant and can be ignored. The term exp(x
0

x
)
is the displacement operator discussed in Section 4.5 of the text.
Dropping the primes, the coherent state wavefunction

(x) = e
i
h
p
0
x

0
(x x
0
), (15)
which is just a ground state displaced a distance x
0
and with an expectation value of p
equal to p
0
.
Time Evolution
A coherent state at time t = 0 is given by equation (6):
| = e

1
2
||
2

n=0

n!
|n,
4
for some complex . Since the time evolution of an energy eigenstate is exp(iE
n
t/h),
where the energy eigenvalue E
n
= h(n+1/2), the time-dependent coherent state |, t is
|, t = e

1
2
||
2

n=0

n!
e
it(n+1/2)
|n
= e
it/2
e

1
2
||
2

n=0

n!
e
int
|n
= e
it/2
e

1
2
||
2

n=0
(e
it
)
2

n!
|n, (16)
Note that if we dene (t) = exp(it), then |, t = |(t). That is, the time-dependent
coherent state is still a coherent state, but with a time-dependent parameter . Therefore,
the minimum-uncertainty relation
x

p
= h/2 holds for all time! This remarkable property
is why the state is said to be coherent.
3. Other properties [10 points]
(a) Show that coherent states are not orthogonal. Is this a surprise? They do, however,
have a closure relation, which turns out to be
_
d
2
|| = , (17)
where the integration is over all complex values of . This closure relation can be
used to express a state in terms of coherent states (thus called the coherent state
representation).
(b) What is the expectation value of H in a coherent state?
4. Expectation values [5 points] From equation (11), the expectation values of x and p
will now be time dependent and given by
x(t) =
_
h
m

2 R{(t)} = x
0
(t) (18a)
p(t) =

mh

2 I{(t)} = p
0
(t), (18b)
Show that these expectation values behave classically. Given their coherence discussed
above, these quantum states are thus sometimes called semi-classical states.
In light of equations (15) and (18), the time dependent coherent state wavefunction
is then

(x, t) =
_
m
h
_
1/4
e
ip
0
(t)x/ h
e
m[xx
0
(t)]
2
/2 h
. (19)
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5. Coherent state wavefunction evolution [10 points]Describe the evolution of the
probability density function in the x-p phase space. The quotes are used because there
is no probability density function in phase space, but rather a probability density func-
tion in x and another in p. Nevertheless, these can be used to gain some understand-
ing of phase space behavior. (A more rigorous answer to this question requires the use
of Wigner distributions, which are an attempt to construct a phase-space density of a
state.) (The evolution of a coherent state probability density function in x is simulated in
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/CoherentStatesOfTheHarmonicOscillator/.)
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