Fora more dete dacuslon ofthe necessary and sullen coadions foram seal slaons sx Rel 3, Chap 7A. Beni, Water and Aqueous Seaton (Pena, New York, io. 6h Ben Nai. Phys Che 82,792 (197) A Ben Naim and . Mace. Chem Phy. 8 438 (1984), fox. Ben Nim and Y. Marcu J Chem Phys 8, 2016 (1984. in expcinent e102 = 83 beth concentatonso Ain the ‘mops ead 8. Wecan choos the slam ernest Ata ‘thea to hae isch way hat the prin cotta ili un Ky = (NE/¥S)q = exp(W(Ala) — WAID/ATD, wick faite Se Sends SOT min? + nf /E/U1+ Ka) } = —In2 A coiceo ky = 1276 oF ‘Ky= (2.26)~" is sltion of tis gunton For the “densng” ‘ipernent we start with a omorczonsdtibutag of Aad Ba {henson We dene, and Ky a sbove and eu ta te Git cere changebe AG" = — ATU, + Ny)in 2 where an ae {he foul sums of A and B mein the enn'A hoe of Kg = 12276 and Ky = (12.276) wil ead to an amon complete ining of Aad B (out 939 04s ne compara nd 937% sitsiueoae. ‘Coherent states of a harmonic oscillator ‘Stephen Howard and Sanat K. Roy Department of Mathematics La Trobe Univers, Bundoore, Victoria 3083, Australis. (Received 14 August 1986; accepted for publication 20 January 1987) ‘The coherent states of a harmonic oscillator are introduced following Sehrédinger’s definition and the equivalence with other definitions is established. The basi properties ofthese states are Aiscussed in some detail L INTRODUCTION ‘The coherent states of « harmonic oscillator (hereafter feferred to3s CS) have been used in the quant mechani ‘aldescription of coherent light sources and in communi cation theory at optical frequencies. Although this set of States recognized as abasic mathematical ool for dealing with those physical situations in which the harmonic osi latorisa model, it has not been given adequate attention in the usual textbooks on quantum mechanis. Discussions of ‘these states are found in technical papers' and in spcial- ized books on quantum optics® and communication the ‘ony."Inthis article we discuss the basic properties ofthe CS that can be derived with the help of elementary quantum ‘mechanics ‘The history of the CS goes back to the early days of ‘quantum mechanics, when around 1926, Schrddinger*e- Ported the existence ofa certain clas of states that dis- played in some sense, the classical behavior of the oscilla: {or To be more precise, the average energy ofthe oscillator {nsucha states equal tothe corresponding classical energy (minus the quantum-mechanical zero-point energy 2/2) andthe averages of x and p have the same orilacoy forms asin the classical case with definite phase. The CS have been calle inthe literature the minimum uncertainty co- herent states, the Schrédinger coherent states, of the Glauber coherent states (when applied to the radiation o=- cillatos) ‘On the bass of Schrédinger’s work, we find that these states have the following properties: (1) They area subset ofthe three-parameter family of 109 AmJ-Phys 55 (12, December 1987 ‘minimum uncertainty states* (at some fixed time, say = 0) #2) = (eR) expixpy/H — ( —x4)°/2M)]. (1) ‘The subset i xed by the choice 2 = (mo) ~!, where m is ‘the mass and wis the angular frequency of the oscillator.* Here, and x are the averages ofp and x, respectively, in the state P(x). They correspond to the clasicl values ofp fandx at #0, (@) The states follow the classical motion in the sense that 6(2) in (1), with 4 = (ma~', evolves in time, under the harmonic potential V(x) = maix'/2, into similar state #2) thats obtainable from (1) by replacing py dnd -yby ther classical values (¢) and x, (f), respectively. (G) The fuctuations Ax and Ap in sucha state areinde- pendent of time and AxAp = #/2 for alltime Schrodinger's main motivation appears to be directed towards the possibility of discovering states with similar properties or potentials ther than the harmonic potential. In letter to Max Planck, Schrodinger states the fllow- = "Lwasto produce a wave pack, Which wa pratt cally confined to a small special region, and which as a matter of fact revolves in precisely the harmonic ellipses described by clasical mechanics for an arbitrary long time ‘without dispersing! T believe that iti only a question of Computational skil to accomplish the samme thing forthe electron in the hydrogen atom. The transition from micro- copie characteristic oscillations to the macroscopic “or bits” of classical mechanics will hen be leary visible," (© 1987 American Anocintin of Physica Teaches 109 | I tewe ato are yeL Looe aticoverea. Ans type of invest- ‘ation is being carried out by Nieto et af" From their ‘workitappears thatthe harmonic osilator isthe only ease {or which we can talk about coberent states. ‘The CSin particular form have also been used by Block and Nordsieck” and subsequently by Schwinger" in con- nection with certain aspects of the electromagnetic radi- ation. Glauber!" "(frst introduced the coherent state), Klauder and Sudarshan,* and many others used these states extensively for dealing with the coherent prop- erties and photon statistics of optical fields. Inthe traditional orm ofthe quantum electrodynamics, {due orginally to Dirac, the radiation feld (the eletri and ‘magneticflelds) ina cavity is exprested as linear superpo- sition ofnormal modes. This is where the harmonic os#.- lator enters the show. The field’ Hamiltonian is then ex: presible as the sum of oscillator-type Hamiltonians, The State ofthe radiation field is describable by the eigenstates ofthe radiation oscillators that are the wellknown number states. However, these number states are found tobe unsui- table forcalelations when the description of the Bld in- volves the phase and the araplitude variables. A radiation ‘mode such asa plane propagating waveisbest described by 48S that sa particular linear combination of the numbet states expressing the cooperative behavior ofthe photons. ‘The coherent stateof an oscillator of massm and angular frequency o has been introduced in the literature in the following equivalent ways (a) The CS are generated from the ground state [0) of the oscillator “by the displacement operator D(a) = exp(aa' —a%a) acting on it, where a and a! are the ennihilation and creation operator, respectively of the sandard karmonic oscillator theory,” and ais a complex ‘umber, the star denoting complex conjugate (See. IID), (b) CS are the eigenstates of the annililation operator ¢ (see. (©) CS are those minimum uncertainty states (Axdp=#/2)- that have the additional property p= mods. The rest ofthe minimum uncertainty states ate called squeezed states (See. V). (@) CS are those minimum uncertainty sates for which (2m) "Tap )* + mo? (B)*] takes the minimum value fu/2 (Sec. V), ‘We shall establish the interelationship among these Sefnitions and that of Schrédinger’s. The two deaitions (a) and (b) areequivalet for the harmonic oscillator due to the particular typeof commutation relations of the ele- rents J, a, a‘, and a'a that form the Heisenberg-Weyl algebra Alttiough we are dealing here with a mechanical osila- tor, the theory can be readily adapted tothe cate ofa single ‘mode of the radiation feld by setting m = Land interpret. ing x asthe normal coordinate and pasits time derivative. ‘We shall give afew examples ofthe use of CS connected with radiation theory. In ce. II we have collected the relevant formulas in the harmonic oscillator theory that are assumed to be well known" and tha: will be constantly used in this atile- In Sec. II we introduce the CS asa quasiclasscal state follow- ing Schradinger’s ideas and establish the definitions (a) and (b). Various useful properties are then derived follow. ing Klauder and Sudarshan’ in Sec 1V.In Se. V we caleu- late some important fluctuations and establish the equi lence of (e) and (4). 1110 Am. Phys, Vol $8, No. 12, December 987 ‘The quantum theory of an oscillator” is conveai {treated in terms ofthe two operators and a, low, instead ofthe usual and p. These operators nal appear in the theory. Consider an oscillator with itonian HO in the Heisenberg picture. They satisfy the commuta ‘elations"* “4 (xo, peo = 8) = A“ X.H)] = p(0/m, BO = —ma*x(0. ‘These equations have exactly the same form asthe cor sponding classical equations. To solve this coupled syste ‘of equations, we introduce the twooperatorsa(r) andl efined by (0) = (marx 0) + ip ACY, a¥(0) = [max(4) — ip(e) Cana} ‘These correspond to the normal coordinate and itso plex conjugate, which ae introduced to decouple the cl sical system of equations similar in form to (4) and (5) Equations (4) and (5) then reduce to [a(n,H V/A) = twats), ‘wa'(e, (1) = a(O)exp( — ior), 2" =a" Oexplion), where a(0) =a, 2"(0) =a" are the operators a(t) sadam f° 21(1), respectively, at = 0, [Any A(O) will be writen a 4 Nes daa we (x, p01 = [a] = 4 ex, it follows, by the use of (6) and (7) that et faat(o) = feat} =. : of ‘The Hamiltonian (2) becomes the: H=Fola'(oa(o +1] 5 . foleta +) a ‘The operator. ‘mutes with H. Hence they have si-ullancous eigenstates is well known'® that eigenvalues of W are 0,1, cigenstates corresponding tothe eigenvalue mi denoted In). The following properties of) ae also well known” cond 210) = Ge ArI0>, (nln!) = 8(nn'), Ei dnl =a,where isthe identity operator. The set {]n) forms. basis {forthe Hilbert space ofthe harmonic oscillator andis more ‘convenient than the usual [z) or |p) basis to deal with the properties ofthe harmonic oscillator. With the help ofthe ‘completenes relation (17) we can write any state |p) and any operator (acting onthe Hilbert space ofthe oscillator) in terms of). For example w= Sm civ, * as) A= SE im) dala im dt. a9) In particular fabs bebe Enno @ a $ MaF T+ 0 ooh ep ‘These formulas, which are assumed to be well known, willbe constantly used throughout this article III. COHERENT STATES, DEFINITIONS. Following the orginal ideas of Schrédinger we intend to finda state (2), called the coherent state ofthe oscilla tor (a state that will satisfy the time-dependent Schré- /?<1, (71a) where () i any state ‘The hermiticity ofp implies that P(a) must be ral val- ued. By setting A'= Fin Eq. (76) we get mp)=[reidant my Bee sri Pe) roy soma eid = d<[Mompl=We-ePiact, gm) ‘which is obtained by choosing [6) and |y) in Ba. (77) as ‘any two coherent states ‘As an example we consider the density operator p fora system in the coherent state |). pis then p= la) dal Weset PP) =5%p—a), (30) ‘hee the two-dimensional delta function is defined by 876) =8(Re )5(Im). ey Te cam easily be verfed that Eqg. (78) and (79) are sais- 11S Am. Phys, Vol $5, No 12, Deemer 1987 us eauauUn (OU) BIE Lue Fp) 1OF We pure conerent sate. ‘Consider now the average ofthe operator (a')"a', We have ((aty"e") = Te playa" (82) We notice that the average ofthe operator (a')"a inthe state p is simply obtained by taking the average of aa with the weight function P(a). The average value of anor- ‘mally ordered fanction ofa anda, f, aa") {in which all ‘creation operators are transferred tothe lef ofall annihla- tion operators with the help ofthe commutation relation (10) is given by (f(aa")) re pfa(aa")) = [ren ceari's wy ‘where f,(a.2*) is obtained from the normal ordered oper- atorfunetion/, (aa) by replacing a by + anda bya. tis ‘essential to have the function inthe normal ordered frm so that terms ofthe type (ala™a"/a) can simply be replaced by a*™a" asin Eq, (82). ‘The significance of the properties ifurtherillutrated by considering the case ofan oscillator in thermal equiirium witha heat reservoir at temperature 7, in other words, an oscillator with thermal noise. The density operator for such system i plata) =[1—exp( —@)lexp( — Ata), (84) where @ = fw/ky Tw isthe angulas frequency ofthe oscil Tator, and ky i the Boltzmann constant, Wecan vey this by expressing in Eq (84) in the number representation: 1 —exp( —6)] 3 exp( — da'a)|n) (nr) plete =U -exp( 0] F expt — on) In) (nl Hence Tep=(1—exp(—0)] 5 [exp — 4)" ‘and the average number of photons inthe state i N= (n) = Te(a'ap) = fexp(o) —1-* ‘This is the Planck distribution as it should be. ‘AGS representation of this pis 209- fen(— 22) 0) ee shims eee yeni am) fo Eq. (85) which turns out to be (nlp|m) = [1 —exp( — 8) Jexp( — On)5 (86) Them aioe Ma) cat abe) (85) p+ wnicn i Gaussian ana posuuve every were. nthe elasial limit fo/ky T'<, the distribution P(a) in Eq, (87) becomes the clasical distribution Pla) = (s/eky Texp( —flalkyT). (88) ‘The general case of determining P(a) from p has been iscussed by Sudarshan.” D, Differential representation of operators ‘The difereatial representations of a* and a can be ob- tained from the two relations (alatlp) = a*(aly) « wd (alala’) = a'(ala’). (30) From Eq (89) ifollows that ais represented by multipl- cadon ya Subst fom Ea, (47) for (ala) in Ea (0) weave (alee) =e en #27 sat) on eee alaly) = 2°! fale’) (ayaa! =(S+ Alero f ier eware (92) ence the representation of @ 8 @/2 + 3/da* in the ‘space of the functions (aly). In general, the operator Fa) has the representation a, 2 ($+ aa)e ‘The derivatives inside Fact on terms containing a* in (als) as wellas those in FitseltFor example, (alaatip) = ($+ 2a. From Eq, (47) wehave calFta'aniv) 3) 2) (aig) =(—-£ 7 (Z)em-=(-S+s)em, (alaatip ) = (a"B + 1) (a8). ‘When Fis in the normal ordered form, alla" are on the right of alain each term of F In this case there is no term nF where d/da* can at giving nonzero values. Thus the ‘normal ordered form of aa" a'a + 1. Hence (alaat\f ) = (ala'a + 118) (94-9. )iaip) + (a (2 +5) 18) + (ale) = (a6 + 1)(al8). Using Ea. (94) we can write Calrcatania) = (alp F(a", 8-+ a aa jr 65 1116 Am.J Phys, Vol $5, No 12, December 987 sae which is very wsefil formals. The left-hand sid of a (6) isa function of a and a* that we shall A F(aa*) which i als equal t (a: Fala), a ‘Flotay: mean the normal ordered form of F(a"). « the operator function F isin the normal ordered fora x iagonal elements simply obtained by substituting af a and a" fora § "As an example ofthe we of the above formals a ‘consider the time development of a quantum mec a System with Hamiltonian (a's). Thestate vector fas the SchrBdinger equation i se (2) veo) veo a “The unitary evolution operator U(s) is defined by" a sc) = We|9O. a tis wellknown that U(0) sass the operator eat sal @ } i 2)ow -H000, | (Zam =H ¢ : ‘with, U(0) = 1. The problem is to determine U(¢) by so t ing Ea (99. E ‘Operator equations are usally complicated to so : However, we can obtain an equation for the normal sou dered astonated function U, (2) 38 follows « @ @ For (Bu, (ar (2)alurereela a Z)u,¢ w(Z)ealureraaied = = (alHeta.n Veta.) Fi low naleattee aa(oa+es) fe a The xv(earZs) : wat )ulara re nn(ora + Zea)ceras me 109 GH which is an equation involving ¢ numbers only. ‘Let us consider the forced harmonic oscillator interaey tion of a classical current with a single mode of the ex feld) for which 3 Ha foal +Alf(dat f(a") Equation (100) tenses 2) users) =[roer(o+ 22) sarco(e+2,) enrroa|iceroe which i number equation that canbe solved in various ‘ways. Similarly the Liouville equation for the density ma {tixean be reduced toac-aumber equation thats compart tively easier to handle than the original operator ea Stowe K Roy Hl ar