Using the commutation relations for the creation and annihilation operators we have $$ \begin{equation} a_{\alpha_1}a_\alpha^{\dagger} a_\beta a_{\alpha_2}^{\dagger} = (\delta_{\alpha \alpha_1} - a_\alpha^{\dagger} a_{\alpha_1} )(\delta_{\beta \alpha_2} - a_{\alpha_2}^{\dagger} a_{\beta} ), \tag{40} \end{equation} $$ which results in $$ \begin{equation} \langle 0|a_{\alpha_1}a_\alpha^{\dagger} a_\beta a_{\alpha_2}^{\dagger}|0\rangle = \delta_{\alpha \alpha_1} \delta_{\beta \alpha_2} \tag{41} \end{equation} $$ and $$ \begin{equation} \langle \alpha_1|\hat{h}_0|\alpha_2\rangle = \sum_{\alpha\beta} \langle \alpha|\hat{h}_0|\beta\rangle\delta_{\alpha \alpha_1} \delta_{\beta \alpha_2} = \langle \alpha_1|\hat{h}_0|\alpha_2\rangle \tag{42} \end{equation} $$