Density operators for fermions

The mathematical methods that have been used to analyze the statistical properties of boson fields, and in particular the coherence of photons in quantum optics, have their counterparts for Fermi fields. The coherent states, the displacement operators, the P representation, and the other operator expansions all possess surprisingly close fermionic analogues. These methods for describing the statistical properties of fermions are based upon a practical calculus of anticommuting variables. They are used to calculate correlation functions and counting distributions for general systems of fermions.