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arXiv:2411.07251 · Physical Review A

Generalization of exact operators of the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation to arbitrary-spin particles in nonstationary fields

Alexander J. Silenko

Published May 29, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

Exact nonexponential and exponential operators of the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation for arbitrary-spin particles are determined in the nonstationary case. Some fundamental properties of these operators and the Foldy-Wouthuysen Hamiltonian are also identified.
DOI
10.1103/physreva.111.l050203

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The exact exponential Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation operator applicable for a particle with an arbitrary spin is derived. It can be successfully utilized for verifying any Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation method based on the exponential operator. When a verified method is relativistic, the relativistic exponential operator should be expanded in the semirelativistic power series. The obtained exponential operator can be also used for a derivation of the Foldy-Wouthuysen Hamiltonian and its comparison with Hamiltonians found by other methods. This procedure makes it possible to check the validity of any other method of the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation.
The exact exponential Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation operator applicable for a particle with an arbitrary spin is derived. It can be successfully utilized for verifying any Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation method based on the exponential operator. When a verified method is relativistic, the relativistic exponential operator should be expanded in the semirelativistic power series. The use of the obtained exponential operator for a derivation of the Foldy-Wouthuysen Hamiltonian makes it possible to check the validity of any other method of the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation, while this possibility may need a greater computational effort.
We show that the origin of the nonequivalence of Hamiltonians in different representations is a change of the form of the time-derivative operator at a time-dependent unitary transformation. This nonequivalence does not lead to an ambiguity of the energy expectation values of a particle in nonstationary fields but assigns the basic representation. It has been explicitly or implicitly supposed in previous investigations that this representation is the Dirac one. We prove the alternative assertion about the basic role of the Foldy-Wouthuysen representation. We also derive the general equation for the energy expectation values in the Dirac representation. As an example, we consider a spin-1/2 particle with anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments in strong time-dependent electromagnetic fields. We apply the obtained results to a spin-1/2 particle in a plane monochromatic electromagnetic wave and give an example of the exact Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation in the nonstationary case.