Tuesday 9 February 2016

homework and exercises - Deriving Schrodinger equation from Klein-Gordon QFT with the definition $psi(textbf{x},t)equiv langle 0|phi_0(textbf{x},t)|psirangle$


In the book "Quantum Field theory and the Standard Model" by Matthew Schwartz, page 23-24, the position space wavefunction is defined as



$$\psi(x)=\langle 0|\phi(x)|\psi\rangle, \tag{2.82+2.83}$$


where $|\psi\rangle$ is any state in the Fock space. Then he uses the equations (i) $\partial_t^2\phi_0=(\nabla^2-m^2)\phi_0$ (i.e., the Klein-Gordon equation for the free massive scalar field $\phi_0(\textbf{x},t)$) and (ii) $[H,\phi_0]=-i\partial_t\phi_0$ to derive Eq. 2.85, in following 3 steps:


$$i\langle 0|\partial_t\phi_0(\textbf{x},t)|\psi\rangle=\langle 0|\int \frac{d^3\textbf{p}}{(2\pi)^3}\frac{\sqrt{\textbf{p}^2+m^2}}{\sqrt{2\omega_\textbf{p}}}(a_p e^{-ip\cdot x}-a^\dagger_p e^{ip\cdot x})|\psi\rangle\\ =\langle 0|\sqrt{m^2-\nabla^2}\phi_0(\textbf{x},t)|\psi\rangle.\tag{2.85}$$


This equation is used to successfully derive the Schrodinger equation in quantum mechanics for the state $\psi(\textbf{x},t)\equiv \langle 0|\phi_0(\textbf{x},t)|\psi\rangle$.




  1. The first equality follows from differentiation of $\phi_0(x)$ w.r.t $t$. How does the second equality follow from the first? How are the inputs (i) and (ii) are utilized to derive the second equality from the first?




  2. Is it true that the operator $$i\partial_t\sim\sqrt{m^2-\nabla^2}~?$$ If yes, what is the use of doing the middle step?







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