Phys 825

homework #3
due Thurs. Sept. 17

Consider a Klein-Gordon field in 1+1 dimensions where the field obeys periodic
boundary conditions in the x direction.

φ(t, x) = φ(t, x + L)

The action is Z L
1 1
Z  
S= dt ∂µ φ∂ µ φ − m2 φ2
dx
0 2 2
We’ll expand the field φ and its conjugate momentum π in a complete set of spatial
Fourier modes.
∞
1 X 1  i2πnx/L 
φ(x) = √ √ an e + a†n e−i2πnx/L
L n=−∞ 2ωn
∞
1 X ωn  i2πnx/L
r 
π(x) = √ (−i) an e − a†n e−i2πnx/L
L n=−∞ 2
q
Here ωn = (2πn/L)2 + m2 .

1. Use an inverse Fourier transform to solve for an and a†n in terms of the fields φ
and π.

2. Use the canonical commutator i[π(x), φ(y)] = δ(x − y) to derive the commuta-
tion relations between the a’s and a† ’s.

3. Express the Hamiltonian for the field in terms of the a’s and a† ’s.

4. Calculate the ground state energy of the field. It’s enough to do this for m = 0.