Quantum Mechanics – Hermiticity of a Projection Operator Explained

hilbert-spacemathematicsoperatorsquantum mechanics

I have managed to get myself quite confused about something. Consider a two level system consisting of states $|0\rangle$ and $|1\rangle$. the projection operator onto the state $|0\rangle$ is given by $\hat{\sigma}_{00}=|0\rangle\langle0|$, and is clearly Hermitian. Being hermitian, you would expect the operator
$$\hat{U}=e^{i\omega\hat{\sigma}_{00}}$$
to be unitary. Expanding the taylor series of this operator we see that
$$\hat{U}=\sum_{k=0}^{\infty}\frac{(i\omega)^{k}}{k!}\hat{\sigma}^{k}_{00}=e^{i\omega}\hat{\sigma}_{00}$$
since $\hat{\sigma}^{k}_{00}=\hat{\sigma}_{00}$. Applying the Hermitian conjugate to this operator we see that
$$\hat{U}^{\dagger}=e^{-i\omega}\hat{\sigma}_{00}.$$
However if this is the case then
$$\hat{U}^{\dagger}\hat{U}=e^{-i\omega}\hat{\sigma}_{00}e^{i\omega}\hat{\sigma}_{00}=e^{0}\hat{\sigma}_{00}\neq\hat{I}$$ so it isn't unitary. Have I made a mistake in my logic or calculations at any point?

Best Answer

Indeed, you missed that $\sigma_{00}^0=I$.

\begin{equation} \hat{U}=I+\sigma_{00}(e^{i\omega}-1), \hspace{6 mm} \hat{U}^{\dagger}=I+\sigma_{00}(e^{-i\omega}-1), \end{equation}

and it is now easy to see that $\hat{U}^{\dagger}\hat{U}=I$.

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