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In 1d bosonization, Giamarchi (Quantum Physics in One Dimension) Chap 2, shows that fermionic Hamiltonian $$H_f=\sum_k k(R_k^* R_k -L_k L_k)$$ is equal to the bosonic representation $$H_b = \sum_k |k| b_k^* b_k$$ by showing that the commutators $[H_f,b_p],[H_b,b_p]$ are equal and assuming that the basis generated by the operators $b$ is complete.

Regarding this, I'm confused about 2 parts.

(1). I understand how a Hilbert space can have a complete basis (or an orthogonal basis), but what does it mean for operators to be complete? Does it mean that $b^*_k |0\rangle$ form a complete basis?

(2). Why does $[H_f,b_p] = [H_b,b_p]$ imply $H_f =H_b$?

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$\newcommand{\Ket}[1]{\left|#1\right>}$ $\newcommand{\BKet}[1]{\left<#1\right|}$ I went through the book and probably you have misunderstood something. However I will try to alleviate your confusion as best as I can.

'basis generated by the operators b is complete."

You are looking at a multi-particle system in Fock Space. $b_k$ and $b_k^*$ are bosonic operators.

Now what is the basis generated by these operators? we know that $$b_k^*\Ket{0} = \Ket{1_k}$$ One particle with momentum k. A general ortho-normal Fock space vector is then. $$(b_k^*)^{m_k}(b_q^*)^{m_q}...\Ket{0} = \Ket{m_k m_q ..} \tag{1}$$

where $m_k$ $m_q$ are occupation numbers. When you say these vectors are complete it means that any state of your system can be written as a linear combination of these vectors. Let us assume for convenience that $l$ represents a unique combination or occupation numbers and that we can represent $\Ket{m_k m_q ..}$ as $$\Ket{m_k m_q ..} = \Ket{n_l}$$

Then for any vecotr $\Ket{v}$ if the $\Ket{n_l}$ is complete we can write

\begin{eqnarray} \sum_l\Ket{n_l}\BKet{n_l}\Ket{v} = \Ket{v} \end{eqnarray}

as this is for any vector we get the condition that the operator defined by $\sum_l\Ket{n_l}\BKet{n_l}$ should be identity $$\sum_l\Ket{n_l}\BKet{n_l} = I\tag{2}$$

which is equivalent to saying the 'basis generated by the operators b is complete'.

Moving on to the main part of the question

Why does $[H_f,b_p]$=$[H_b,b_p]$ imply $H_f=H_b$?

I think you are mis-characterising what was written in the book. If I may crudely explain the procedure in the book.

You have an interaction Hamiltonian $H_f$ with Fermionic operators . In the book the author shows that the product of two of those ferminoic operators satisfy bosonic commutation relations. Therefore he intends to reduce a Hamiltonian involving four ferminonic operators to a problem involving product of two bosonic operators $b_k$ in hopes of diagonalising it easier.

Then he goes on to find the commutation relation between $H_f$ and $b_k$. the answer comes out to be $$[b_k, H_f] = f(k)b_k\tag{3}$$

Then the author states

If we assume for the moment that the basis generated by b is complete, then $$[b_k, H_f] = f(k)b_k$$ define completely the Hamiltonian in the boson basis.

Let's see why this is true. If the basis generated by $b$, that is $\Ket{n_l}$ is complete, then if we can find $$ \BKet{n_m}H_f\Ket{n_l}$$

for all $l$ it will completely determine the Hamiltonian.

We can rewrite the above expression as $$\BKet{0}...(b_q)^{m_q}(b_k)^{m_k}H_f(b_k^*)^{m_k}(b_q^*)^{m_q}...\Ket{0}$$

Now as long as $\Ket{n_m}=\Ket{n_l}=\Ket{0}$ is not true, we can always re-order the creation or annihilation operator $b$ to the opposite side of the Hamiltonian $H_f$ such that we get zero plus or minus a commutator $[H_f,b]$. But we already know that the commutator is proportional to $b$ and thus we can evaluate the commutator trivially. In case of $\Ket{n_m}=\Ket{n_l}=\Ket{0}$, its simply the vacuum expectation value.

So it is true that $H_f$ is completely determined by the commutator. Now we want to write the Hamiltonian in terms of the bosonic creation and annihilation operator. The Hamiltonian then has the general form

$$H_b = \sum_k h_{qr} b^*_q b_r$$

Remember that you are writing the same Hamiltonian $H_f$ in a different basis, this is not a different Hamiltonian. Now if you substitute this into the commutation relations

\begin{eqnarray} [b_p,H_b] = \sum_k h_{qr} [b_p,b^*_q b_r]\\ =\sum_k h_{qr} [b_p,b^*_q]b_r + \sum_k h_{qr} b^*_q[b_p, b_r]\\ =\sum_k h_{qr} b_r \delta_{pq} =\sum_k h_{pr} b_r = f(p)b_p \end{eqnarray}

As $b_r$s are linearly independent this implies $$ h_{pr} = \delta_{pr}f(p)$$

Which gives the Hamiltonian in the bosonic basis as $$H_b = \sum_p f(p)b^*_p b_p\tag{4}$$

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