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In quantum mechanics, the probability density of a particle's position is $$\rho(x)=|\langle x|\psi\rangle|^2$$

What is the corresponding expression in QFT to predict this distribution? Since $\rho(x)$ can be measured (at least to some accuracy) in experiment, this seems like a fair question to ask.

I have asked this question to a few people at my university. To anticipate a few answers which in my opinion did not resolve this question, let me point out that

  • In QFT, because particle number is not conserved, it has been suggested that the question I am asking might not make sense. A slightly reformulated version of the question does, though: "what is the probability density of finding (for example) exactly one electron at x?".
  • I have read some answers to similar questions like this one, which mentions a position operator defined by Newton & Wigner, so that its eigenstates give the probability of a position outcome as in QM. According to the same post, this attempt at an X operator failed because the probability was not Lorentz invariant.
  • U(1) symmetry in $\mathscr{L}$ suggests something like a probability density, but this quantity can be negative, which is why it is interpreted as charge density instead (as far as I have read).
  • I am aware that QFT is not usually used to predict position probability densities. However such things are commonly measured, for example in the double slit experiment. Therefore if the theory is at least as general as QM, it is desirable that it has something to say here.

Of course if one of these bullet points somehow does resolve the question I would be very interested to better understand how.

doublefelix
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  • You might want to have a look at my similar question here: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/287759/110516. – Inzinity Nov 08 '17 at 17:45
  • The explicit assumption of perturbative interacting QFT in Minkowski spacetime is that particles are free (i.e. described by free quantum fields) at asymptotic times, therefore only scattering probability amplitudes are the observables of the theory. Perhaps @Arnold Neumaier can tell us what happens in the nonperturbative QFT (also called constructive QFT). – DanielC Nov 08 '17 at 23:41
  • @DanielC To my naive mind it seems fine to take the scattering limit and still hope for predictions for position measurements. For example in the double slit experiment, the screen can be just as far away from the slits as as (say) the distance between scattering center and detector at the LHC. – doublefelix Nov 09 '17 at 00:20
  • Possibly related. But note, as in that answer, that QFT is used in scattering experiments, essentially in momentum space: one delves into short distances indirectly. Hyper localization is essentially besides the point. QFT is hardly applicable to slit experiments and such. – Cosmas Zachos Nov 09 '17 at 00:26

1 Answers1

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The required amplitude is an overlap between a localized particle state and a field configuration state.

For the case of a free scalar field, Roman Jackiw in his work on Functional representations for quantized fields has performed the computation of the exactly required amplitude (equation 2.14A ).

I'll repeat here some details of his derivation and recast the result into a coherent state basis, which I think it is more amenable to experimental measurement.

In the Schrodinger picture, we associate a vector $|\phi\rangle$ in Hilbert space to each field configuration. Please notice that all the following expressions are infinite dimensional generalizations of the harmonic oscillator. (The following computations are not rigorous, the rigor can be improved by weighting and smearing, but this will not be done here).

The action of the field operator at time $t=0$ on the configuration vectors is given by: $$\hat{\Phi}(x)|\phi\rangle = \phi(x)|\phi\rangle$$ ($x$ is a vector in three dimensions )

The action of the canonical momenta (at $t=0$ )is given by: $$\hat{\Pi}(x)|\phi\rangle = \frac{\delta}{\delta\phi(x)}|\phi\rangle$$ For a quadratic Hamiltonian: $$\hat{H} = \int \mathrm{d}x \, \hat{\Pi}(x)^2 + \int \mathrm{d}x \, \mathrm{d}y\, \hat{\Phi}(x)\Omega(x,y) \hat{\Phi}(y) $$ ($\Omega$ can be viewed as an infinite dimensional mass matrix)

The vacuum functional has the form: $$\Psi_{\Omega}(\phi) = \langle \phi | \Omega \rangle = \mathrm{det}^{\frac{1}{4}}\left({\frac{\Omega}{\pi}}\right) e^{-\frac{1}{2} \int \mathrm{d}x \, \mathrm{d}y\, \Phi(x)\Omega(x,y) \Phi(y)} $$ This is an infinite dimensional generalization of the Harmonic oscillator vacuum wave function.

In infinite dimensions, a wave functional with a different mass matrix will be orthogonal to the vacuum wave functional and to all of its excited state, thus will belong to another superselection sector. There are advantages in keeping a general mass matrix because in infinite dimensions they allow approximate treatment of weakly interacting fields through a Bogoliubov transformation. However, for simplicity, I'll continue with a diagonal mass matrix:

$$\Omega(x,y) \propto \delta(x-y)$$

(The corresponding vacuum and its wave functional will be denoted by: $|0\rangle$ and $\Psi_{0}(\phi) $ respectively). Also, I'll not bother with the infinite normalizations.

In analogy, the particle creation and annihilation operators are given by: $$A(x) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(\hat{\Phi} (x)+ i \hat{\Pi} (x))$$ $$A^{\dagger}(x) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(\hat{\Phi} (x) - i \hat{\Pi} (x))$$

Thus, the required amplitude is given by: $$\langle \phi | x\rangle = \langle \phi|A^{\dagger}(x)| 0\rangle> = \phi(x) \langle \phi|0\rangle = \phi(x) e^{-\frac{1}{2} \int \mathrm{d}x \, \phi(x)^2} $$

The Schrodinger representation of a coherent state is given by analogy to the harmonic oscillator:

$$\Psi_{\alpha}(\phi) = N e^{-\frac{1}{2} \int \mathrm{d}x \, (\Phi(x) - \sqrt{2}\alpha(x))^2 }$$ and the coherent state is given by:

$$|\alpha\rangle= \int \mathcal{D}\phi \Psi_{\alpha}(\phi) |\phi\rangle$$

(The integration is over all the field configurations). It is easy to see that $|\alpha\rangle$ is an eigenstate of the annihilation operator.

Thus we obtain:

$$\langle \alpha| x \rangle = \int \mathcal{D}\phi \Psi_{\alpha}(\phi) \langle \phi | x\rangle = \alpha(x)$$

In quantum systems described by coherent states of field theories , the function $\alpha (x)$ is usually referred to as the macroscopic wave function. The required amplitude has a very simple expression in terms of the macroscopic wave function.

Interpretation of the results

The requested amplitude $\langle \phi | x\rangle$ in the question is an overlap between a field configuration $\phi$ and a single particle state. The computed overlap is proportional to $\phi(x) e^{-\frac{1}{2} \int \mathrm{d}x \, \phi(x)^2}$. This result, also computed by Jackiw, makes sense, since it is proportional to the field strength at $x$. However, this amplitude will be in general be small unless the configuration $\phi$ is peaked at $x$. Thus, in practice this amplitude should be useful only when the system is in a lumped state around $x$, for example in a solitonic state. (If I had taken proper care of the normalizations, the space integral the squared modulus of the result would have been automatically normalized to $1$).

The last computation was intended to find the amplitude $\langle \alpha | x\rangle$, in a coherent state rather in a Schrödinger state. The second last equation is just the change of basis between the coherent state basis and the Schrödinger basis. The complex field $\alpha$ is called the macroscopic wave function for the following reason:

In a nonrelativistic system described by a complex Schrödinger field, the canonical momentum is equal to the complex conjugate of the field: $\hat{\Pi}(x)= \hat{\Phi}^{*}(x)$. Since we must have $[\hat{\Phi}(x), \hat{\Pi}(x')] = \delta(x-x')$, we must interpret the field as the annihilation operator and its momentum as the creation operator (not as in the relativistic case, where they are combinations of creation and annihilation operators). In this case, the expectation value of the field in the coherent state basis will be: $$\langle \alpha| \hat{\Phi}(x) | \alpha \rangle = \langle \alpha| A(x) | \alpha \rangle = \alpha(x)$$ (The identity $A(x) |\alpha \rangle =\alpha(x)|\alpha \rangle $, valid in the coherent state basis, was used).

In relativistic systems such as radiation or relativistic plasmas we can still call the function $\alpha(x)$ a macroscopic wave function although the above reasoning is not valid.

The reason that I gave you also the result in a coherent state basis is that whenever a distributed system is in a coherent state (such as a Bose-Einstein condensate); the macroscopic wave function is a measurable quantity.

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    Thank you very much for the thorough reply and sorry for my slow response, I took some time to think about it.

    My main question is: can I rely that this way of generating position eigenstates will give the desired results? Since (as far as I know) probability densities haven't been tested for relativistic particles, basically this question is equivalent to "does it reduce to the QM expression in the nonrelativistic limit?" I plugged in the expression for a free real scalar field. I did get <x|x'>=0 if $x\neq x', t=t'$. However the x eigenstates depend on time - how can I understand this?

    – doublefelix Nov 19 '17 at 17:12
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    The description given in the answer is entirely static. The quantities in the text refer to $t=0$ as given in Jackiw's article. Of course, you have the Hamiltonian and you can advance the operators in time. The choice that I made for $\Omega$ is not relativistic. In order to have a relativistic model $\Omega$ should be taken as $\nabla^2 + m^2$. By a simple expression I meant that the amplitude (not the probability) that was required in the question is exactly the macroscopic wave function in the coherent state basis (In the field configuration basis there is an additional Gaussian factor). – David Bar Moshe Nov 19 '17 at 17:53
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    cont. The effects of a macroscopic wave function are observable in systems with long range quantum coherence. In my opinion, these effects provide an indirect measurement of the amplitudes that you have in mind, since in systems with a large number of particles, it is hard to control a single particle; however, it is easier to control some collective behavior. – David Bar Moshe Nov 19 '17 at 17:54
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    I don't think this is correct. For being a probability density, $|<\psi|x>|^2$ should integrate to 1, but your expression doesn't. – Arnold Neumaier Nov 20 '17 at 15:30
  • @Arnold Neumaier you have normalization constants in the expressions of the wave functionals which control the normalization of the wave function in the last expression which should be a probability amplitude. I didn't bother with the normalizations (some of them can only be defined as limits) neither did Jackiw, but they can be perfectly taken care of from the beginning. – David Bar Moshe Nov 20 '17 at 15:40
  • I did not understand the role of the macroscopic wave function - since we defined position eigenstates I assumed $|\langle\phi |x\rangle |^2$ was the probability. If that is the case, then where does $\alpha (x)$ come in? I would also still be interested to know if this method can be shown to limit to the QM prediction in the nonrelativisic case. I am sorry to bother you with so many questions. – doublefelix Nov 20 '17 at 22:04
  • I have prepared an answer to this comment as an update in the main text – David Bar Moshe Nov 21 '17 at 15:44
  • Thank you, I have only read a little bit about lagrangians which by $\delta S=0$ give the Schrödinger equation (I think that is what you meant by a complex Schrödinger field?) and I will duplicate your steps at home soon. I understand now the reason you brought up coherent states. As for $|\langle x|\phi\rangle|^2$ reducing to the nonrelativistic expression, was this implicit in your answer in bringing up the Schrödinger field? – doublefelix Nov 21 '17 at 17:51
  • Just to be clear, the reason I am so interested in the nonrelativistic limit is that as far as I can tell this is not a standard approach to finding $\rho (x)$, mostly because it seems there is no standard approach: I get different answers from every professor. Given that, it seems important to check its consistency before adding it confidently to my brain. – doublefelix Nov 21 '17 at 22:35
  • I mentioned the nonrelativistic case in the last paragraph of the answer in order to motivate the term: "Macroscopic wave function", usually used in superconductivity, where people use nonrelativistic quantum field theory: (In a Galilean nonrelativistic theory, it is the expectation value of the field operator in a coherent state). However, I don't think that there is any difference in the interpretation of the amplitude $\langle \phi |x\rangle$ between the relativistic and nonrelativistic cases. – David Bar Moshe Nov 22 '17 at 10:16
  • Hi there. With a little more QFT background I'm coming back to this question in order to finally thoroughly understand the answer. Although I might be missing something, I see an issue with the transformation properties of this expression. When in a state $|\psi>$, by this prescription the probability density in x is $|<\psi |x>|^2=|<\psi |(\phi (x) -i \Pi(x))|0>|^2$. As the fields transform like scalars, this expression should transform like a scalar. However probability density should transform like the 0-component of a 4vector. This suggests the expression could not be correct in general. – doublefelix Dec 08 '18 at 18:35
  • The canonical formalism isn't manifestly Lorentz invariant, for example, in the definition of the canonical momenta $\Pi = \frac{\delta \mathcal{L}}{\delta \dot{\Phi}}$, the functional derivative is with respect to a time derivative of the field. As a consequence, the canonical commutation relations between the annihilation and creation operators are not manifestly relativistic either: $[A(\vec{x}), A^{\dagger}(\vec{y})] = \delta^{3}(\vec{x}-\vec{y})$. – David Bar Moshe Dec 10 '18 at 10:42
  • cont. Thus, the probability density should indeed be a fourth component of a $4$- vector. Now, how to see that: The Lorentz invariance is not lost, it is only not covariantly manifest. First, one can work with the Crnković-Witten formalism of covariant phase space. Or alternatively, show explicitly, the non-manifest Lorentz invariance. For this purpose, we need to construct the probability current corresponding to the above probability density and construct the explicit Lorentz transformations. – David Bar Moshe Dec 10 '18 at 10:45
  • Thank you for the answer! From what I understand, you are saying that $|\langle \psi | x \rangle |^2 $ in this formalism does transform as a 4-vector component, but that it is not obvious from the form (not manifest). However, in my Dec 8 comment, I had provided proof that it doesn't transform as a 4-vector. This would mean your argument does not work. Was there a flaw in my reasoning in that comment? – doublefelix Dec 30 '18 at 16:24
  • As I wrote to you, the assertion that $\Pi(x)$ is a scalar is incorrect, because it is the derivartive of a scalar (the Lagrangian), with respect to a time derivative. – David Bar Moshe Jan 02 '19 at 07:36
  • Thanks for the help. You're right, $\Pi$ is not a scalar. But the suggested expression still has two issues I see: 1. it still doesn't transform properly, as $\frac{1}{\partial t'}=\frac{1}{\gamma}\frac{1}{\partial t}$ gives $\Pi'(x')=\gamma \Pi(x')$, so the new amplitude is $\rho'(x')=|\langle \psi(x')|(\phi(x')-i\gamma \Pi(x'))|0\rangle|^2 \neq \gamma \rho(x')$, where $\rho'(x')=\gamma \rho(x')$ is the correct transformation law under a boost. 2. the canonical momentum is not uniquely defined, for ex. adding a total derivative to $\mathcal{L}$ changes it. – doublefelix Sep 01 '19 at 17:22
  • Please, notice first that the canonical momentum is the derivative of the Lagrangian with respect to the fourth component of the gradient of the field; it does not have to be a fourth component of a vector by itself. For example, for a spinor field, the canonical momentum is the conjugate field. For a scalar field the canonical momentum is indeed a fourth component of a vector: $\pi = \dot{\phi}$, it is the fourth component of the vector $\partial_{\mu}\phi$; but then under a general Lorentz transformation, it gets mixed with the spatial components of $\partial_{\mu}\phi$. – David Bar Moshe Sep 03 '19 at 10:56
  • All the same, this quantity doesn't seem to transform correctly, or am I missing something? – doublefelix Oct 30 '19 at 10:00
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    Another thing to consider: The commutation relation alone can't justify the particle interpretation. The pair $A(x)$ and $A^\dagger(x)$ would still satisfy the same commutation relation in the $\phi^4$ model with arbitrarily strong interaction, where they're certainly not $1$-particle creation/annihilation operators. Even in for the free (relativistic) scalar field, the operator $A(x)$ doesn't annihilate the vacuum state. Both $A(x)|0\rangle$ and $A^\dagger(x)|0\rangle$ are single-particle states in that model, but they're not localized at a point (even though the operators are). – Chiral Anomaly Aug 29 '20 at 13:23