Spin operator in the Dirac theory

Paweł Caban, Jakub Rembieliński, and Marta Włodarczyk
Phys. Rev. A 88, 022119 – Published 22 August 2013

Abstract

We find all spin operators for a Dirac particle satisfying the following very general conditions: (i) spin does not convert positive (negative) energy states into negative (positive) energy states, (ii) spin is a pseudovector, and (iii) eigenvalues of the projection of a spin operator in an arbitrary direction are independent of this direction (isotropy condition). We show that there are four such operators and all of them fulfill the standard su(2) Lie algebra commutation relations. Nevertheless, only one of them has a proper nonrelativistic limit and acts in the same way on negative and positive energy states. We show also that this operator is equivalent to the Newton-Wigner spin operator and Foldy-Wouthuysen mean-spin operator. We also discuss another operator proposed in the literature.

  • Received 1 July 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.88.022119

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Paweł Caban*, Jakub Rembieliński, and Marta Włodarczyk

  • Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Lodz, Pomorska 149/153, 90-236 Łódź, Poland

  • *P.Caban@merlin.phys.uni.lodz.pl
  • jaremb@uni.lodz.pl
  • marta.wlodarczyk@gmail.com

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Issue

Vol. 88, Iss. 2 — August 2013

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