Operator Identities 2

Operator identities
Identities between mutually noncommuting operators are of great importance and

use, as they are required very frequently in quantum mechanical calculations. What
follows are some of the most common of these identities. Let A and B be linear
operators in an LVS with a common domain. In general, A and B do not commute
with each other, that is, [A, B] AB BA 6= 0.
1. Perturbation expansion for the inverse of an operator: Frequently, we
face the problem of finding the inverse of an operator of the form (A + B), where
the inverse A1 of A is known, and is a scalar of sufficiently small magnitude such
that k Bk kAk. We can then write a so-called perturbation expansion for
the inverse (A + B)1 (that is, an infinite series in powers of ), as follows:
(A + B)1 = A1 A1 B A1 + 2 A1 B A1 B A1 + . . .
Establish this result by starting with the identity
(A + B)1 = A1 A1 B (A + B)1 .
2. Hadamards lemma is an extremely useful operator identity, from which a

host of other operator identities can be derived. Let denote a scalar constant.
Then
3 h
i
2
A, [A, B] +
A, A, [A, B] + .
e A B e A = B + [A, B] +
2!
3!
Derive this result by defining the operator-valued function
F () = e A B e A .
Now obtain a first order differential equation (in ) satisfied by F (), and solve it,
using the boundary condition F (0) = B.
Hadamards lemma may be regarded as an identity between two analytic functions of the complex variable . The result is valid, by analytic continuation, for
all complex satisfying || < . Re-labeling as i, we have a useful form of the
lemma, namely,
ei A B ei A = B + i [A, B]

i
3 h
2
A, [A, B] i
A, A, [A, B] + .
2!
3!
As I have already indicated, Hadamards lemma is the starting point for the derivation of a large number of operator identities and relations.
3. Another useful operator relation that is closely related to Hadamards
lemma is as follows. Let A and B be two operators that do not commute with each
other, in general. Define the operator Bt by
Bt = eiAt B eiAt ,
where t is a parameter. (A and B do not depend on t.) Verify that Bt is a solution
of the integral equation
Z t
h
i
Bt = B + i A ,
dt 0 Bt 0 .
0
The Zassenhaus formula: It is often required to find the exponential of a linear

combination of A and B. Since A and B do not commute with each other, this
cannot be written as the exponential of A times the exponential of B. In general,
exp (A + B) can only be expressed as an infinite product of operators of the form
eA+B = eA eB eZ1 eZ2 eZ3 . . .
where
Z1
Z2
Z3
12 [A, B]
1

1
6 A , [A, B] + 3 B , [A, B]
h
h
h

i

i

i
1
24
A , A , [A, B] 81 A , B , [A, B] 18 B , B , [A, B]
This is the Zassenhaus formula. The subsequent terms in the product involve higherorder multiple commutators that can be determined by a systematic but quite tedious iterative procedure.
The Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff (BCH) formula is the complement of the
Zassenhaus formula, in the sense that it expresses the product of exponentials,
eA eB , in terms of the exponential of an infinite sum of operators involving multiple
commutators. Setting [A, B] = C, the formula is
o
n

1
1
1
[A , C] 12
[B , C] 24
B , [A , C] + ,
(exp A) (exp B) = exp A+B + 12 C + 12
where in the exponent on the right-hand side stands for an infinite sum of
higher-order multiple commutators. As in the case of the Zassenhaus formula, the
successive terms in the sum can be found by a recursive procedure.
4. In specific cases, if more information is available about the multiple commutators
that appear in the Zassenhaus and BCH formulas, these formulas may be simplified
somewhat. The simplest of these special cases, and the most important one, obtains
when both A and B commute with their commutator C = [A, B]. (Sometimes this
happens because C is just a constant multiple of the unit operator, but this is not
necessary for the validity of the results that follow below.) The Zassenhaus and
BCH formulas can then be derived in a fairly simple manner.
(a) Show that, if [A, C] = 0 = [B, C], then
1
eA+B = eA eB e 2 [A,B] .
You can derive this formula this by obtaining and solving a first-order differential equation for the operator F () defined as
F () = e(A+B) ,
where is a scalar (not an operator). Use the obvious boundary condition
F (0) = I. Keep track of the fact that A and B do not commute with each
other.
(b) Similarly show that, if [A, C] = 0 = [B, C], then
1
eA eB = eA+B+ 2 [A,B] .
(c) Apply the result to the important case A = iax , B = ibp where a and b are
real scalars and x, p are the canonical position and momentum operators in
one dimension, to find the commutator [eiax , eibp ]. This is called the Weyl
form of the canonical commutation relation.
5. Here is a related but slightly different way of arriving at the Zassenhaus formula
when the commutator of two operators is the unit operator. Let A and B be two
operators such that [A, B] = I, the unit operator. Consider the linear combination
L = A + B, where and are arbitrary complex scalars (not operators).
(a) Show that
Ln
= nALn1 12 n(n 1)Ln2 .
(b) Show that

eL
= A 12 eL .
(c) Integrate this last equation suitable to show that e A+B = e A e B e 2 .

Apply this to the important case B = a, A = a , so that [A, B] = [a, a ] = 1.
Setting = , we get the important relation
e a
= e a e
a 21 ||2
The operator on the left-hand side is called the displacement operator. It generates coherent states, as we will see a little later.

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Operator identities

Identities between mutually noncommuting operators are of great importance and

2. Hadamards lemma is an extremely useful operator identity, from which a

The Zassenhaus formula: It is often required to find the exponential of a linear

(b) Show that

(c) Integrate this last equation suitable to show that e A+B = e A e B e 2 .

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