It is shown that a Dirac(-type) equation for a rank-two bi-spinor field ψph on Minkowski (configuration) spacetime furnishes a Lorentz-covariant quantum-mechanical wave equation in position-space representation for a single free photon. This equation does not encounter any of the roadblocks that have obstructed previous attempts (by various authors) to formulate a quantum-mechanical photon wave equation. In particular, it implies that the photon wave function ψph yields conserved non-negative Born-rule-type quantum probabilities and that its probability current density four-vector transforms properly under Lorentz transformations. Moreover, the eigenvalues of the pertinent photon Dirac Hamiltonian and the vector eigenvalues of the photon momentum operator yield the familiar Einstein relations E = ℏω and p = ℏk, respectively. Furthermore, these spin-1 wave modes are automatically transversal without the need of an additional constraint on the initial data. Some comments on other proposals to set up a photon wave equation are supplied as well.
It is shown that a Dirac(-type) equation for a rank-two bi-spinor field ψph on Minkowski (configuration) spacetime furnishes a Lorentz-covariant quantum-mechanical wave equation in position-space representation for a single free photon. This equation does not encounter any of the roadblocks that have obstructed previous attempts (by various authors) to formulate a quantum-mechanical photon wave equation. In particular, it implies that the photon wave function ψph yields conserved non-negative Born-rule-type quantum probabilities and that its probability current density four-vector transforms properly under Lorentz transformations. Moreover, the eigenvalues of the pertinent photon Dirac Hamiltonian and the vector eigenvalues of the photon momentum operator yield the familiar Einstein relations E = ℏω and p = ℏk, respectively. Furthermore, these spin-1 wave modes are automatically transversal without the need of an additional constraint on the initial data. Some comments on other proposals to set up a photon wave equation are supplied as well.
On the relativistic quantum mechanics of a photon between two electrons in 1+1 dimensions
Abstract A Lorentz-covariant system of wave equations is formulated for a quantum-mechanical three-body system in one space dimension, comprised of one photon and two identical massive spin one-half Dirac particles, which can be thought of as two electrons (or alternatively, two positrons). Manifest covariance is achieved using Dirac’s formalism of multi-time wave functions, i.e., wave functions Ψ(xph,xe1,xe2) Ψ ( x ph , x e 1 , x e 2 ) where xph,xe1,xe2 x ph , x e 1 , x e 2 are generic spacetime events of the photon and two electrons, respectively. Their interaction is implemented via a Lorentz-invariant no-crossing-of-paths boundary condition at the coincidence submanifolds {xph=xe1} { x ph = x e 1 } and {xph=xe2} { x ph = x e 2 } compatible with conservation of probability current. The corresponding initial-boundary value problem is shown to be well-posed, and it is shown that the unique solution can be represented by a convergent infinite sum of Feynman-like diagrams, each one corresponding to the photon bouncing between the two electrons a fixed number of times.
Physical processes are usually described using four-dimensional vector quantities - coordinate vector, momentum vector, current vector. But at the fundamental level they are characterized by coordinate and momentum spinors. The propagation of fields and their interaction takes place at the spinor level, and since each spinor uniquely corresponds to a certain vector, the results of physical processes appear before us in vector form. For example, the relativistic Schrödinger equation and the Dirac equation are formulated by means of coordinate vectors, momentum vectors and quantum operators corresponding to them. In the Dirac equation the wave function is a spinor with complex components, but still coordinates and momentum are vectors. For a closed description of nature using only spinor quantities, it is necessary to have an equation similar to the Dirac equation in which momentum, coordinates and operators are spinors. It is such an equation that is presented in this paper. Quantum mechanics describes interactions using complex wave functions that cannot be observed directly; only upon measurement do they translate into probabilities expressed as the squares of the magnitudes of the wave functions. In the same way spinor quantities are not observable, but they completely determine observable vectors. In Section 2 of the paper, we analyze the quadratic form for an arbitrary four-component complex vector based on Pauli matrices. The form is invariant with respect to Lorentz transformations including any rotations and boosts. The invariance of the form allows us to construct on its basis an equation for a free particle combining the properties of the relativistic wave equation and the Dirac equation. For an electron in the presence of an electromagnetic potential it is shown that taking into account the commutation relations between the momentum and coordinate components allows us to obtain from this equation the known results describing the interactions of the electron spin with the electric and magnetic field. In the presence of a potential the momentum components cease to commute with each other. To neutralize this effect, the Schrödinger equation is supplemented by several equations with mixed partial derivatives on coordinates. Section 3 presents a version of quantum theory in spinor coordinate space. Section 4 presents a modification of the theory of the path integral, which consists in considering the path integral in the spinor coordinate space. An equation of motion for the electron is proposed that is relativistically invariant. This novel equation permitted the construction of an actually invariant procedure for the second quantization of the fermion field in spinor coordinate space. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the field operators are a combination of plane waves in spinor or vector space, with the coefficients of which being pseudospinors or pseudovectors. Furthermore, each plane wave possesses an additional coefficient in the form of a creation or annihilation operator. In vector space, these operators commute, whereas in spinor space they anticommutate. The paper presents the spinor and vector representations of the field operators in explicit form, comprising sets of 16 pseudospinors or 4 pseudovectors. An explicit form of the symmetric traceless tensor with spin two, zero mass and two polarizations are presented, which can serve as a model of the graviton. Section 5 presents Einstein's inhomogeneous equation, which features the Riemann tensor rather than the Ricci tensor, with the energy-momentum tensor of a charged particle having four indices rather than two. In the case where a particle of matter has a charge, another Riemann tensor is added to Einstein’s equation, in addition to the usual Riemann curvature tensor, which describes the additional curvature created for a charged particle by an electromagnetic field.
One and two photon wave functions are derived by projecting the quantum state vector onto simultaneous eigenvectors of the number operator and a recently constructed photon position operator [Phys. Rev. A 59, 954 (1999)] that couples spin and orbital angular momentum. While only the Landau-Peierls wave function defines a positive definite photon density, a similarity transformation to a biorthogonal field-potential pair of positive frequency solutions of Maxwell's equations preserves eigenvalues and expectation values. We show that this real space description of photons is compatible with all of the usual rules of quantum mechanics and provides a framework for understanding the relationships amongst different forms of the photon wave function in the literature. It also gives a quantum picture of the optical angular momentum of beams that applies to both one photon and coherent states. According to the rules of quantum mechanics, this wave function gives the probability to count a photon at any position in space.
We extend classical Maxwell field theory to a first quantized theory of the photon by deriving a conserved Lorentz four-current whose zero component is a positive-definite number density. Fields are real and their positive (negative) frequency parts are interpreted as absorption (emission) of a positive-energy photon. With invariant plane-wave normalization, the photon position operator is Hermitian with instantaneously localized eigenvectors that transform as Lorentz four-vectors. Reality of the fields and wave function ensure causal propagation and zero net absorption of energy in the absence of charged matter. The photon probability amplitude is the real part of the projection of the photon's state vector onto a basis of position eigenvectors and its square implements the Born rule. Manifest covariance and consistency with quantum field theory is maintained through use of the electromagnetic four-potential and the Lorenz gauge.
The photon dynamics proposed by Cook [Phys. Rev. A 25, 2164 (1982); 26, 2754 (1982)] is reformulated in terms of conventional quantum mechanics. Here, the subject is confined to a photon in vacuum. The photon density D(x,t) and photon current density C(x,t) in the Cook theory are here regarded as the probability density and probability current density of a single photon, respectively. A wave function \ensuremath{\Psi} for a photon is defined by a 6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1 column matrix ${(}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\varphi}}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\psi}}}$) where \ensuremath{\psi} and \ensuremath{\varphi} correspond to the photon vector fields of the Cook theory. The Schr\"odinger equation for \ensuremath{\Psi} is easily obtained from equations of photon fields \ensuremath{\psi} and \ensuremath{\varphi} and the Hamiltonian form is determined as the time-evolution operator. By this reformulation, negative-frequency solutions were shown not to be physical and need not be considered for a physical photon. This explains why, in the Cook theory, they are dismissed from plane-wave expansions of photon fields \ensuremath{\psi} and \ensuremath{\varphi}.
In this chapter, we investigate the Dirac equation, which is named after P. A. M. Dirac, who is one of the fathers of quantum field theory. The Dirac equation is a relativistic quantum mechanical wave equation for spin-1/2 particles (e.g. electrons), which was derived by Dirac in 1928. The difficulties in finding a consistent single-particle theory from the Klein–Gordon equation led Dirac to search for an equation that had a positive-definite conserved probability density and was first order both in time and space. One can show that these two conditions imply that a matrix equation is required. The reason why the Klein–Gordon equation did not yield a positive-definite probability density is connected with the second-order time derivative in this equation, which arises because the Klein–Gordon equation is related to the relativistic energy–momentum relation E 2 = m 2 + p 2 via the correspondence principle that includes a term E 2 . Thus, a ‘better’ Lorentz covariant wave equation with a positive-definite probability density should have a first-order time derivative only. However, the equivalence of time and space coordinates in Minkowski space requires that such an equation also have only first-order space derivatives.