Exact solutions of Dirac equation

Antonio S. de Castro, Marcelo Hott

Shudong Wu

The associated Laguerre polynomials are very popular in the Schrödinger equation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. However, the situation is quite different in the case of the Dirac equation of relativistic quantum mechanics. The exact solutions of the Dirac equation for three-dimensional (3D) hydrogen atom have been obtained using the wavefunction expansion method. The exact solutions of the radial wavefunctions are found in the form of a linear combination of the orthogonal Laguerre basis function spinors. According to the equality of coefficients in Laguerre series on both sides of the equations, the exact eigenenergies and exact expressions of the corresponding eigenstates of the Dirac equation for 3D hydrogen atom are obtained, which are the same as the power series solutions. Additionally, a comparison with the results from Dirac and Schrödinger equations for 3D hydrogen atom is discussed. Due to the relativistic effects, the Dirac bispinor occurs, and there are the tiny differences of the results between Dirac and Schrödinger equations. For the Dirac states with n r = 0, there is one set of the Dirac bispinor. However for the Dirac states with n r ≠ 0, there is a combination of two sets of the Dirac bispinor. For degenerate Dirac states, their exact expansion coefficients are commutative symmetric. These results show that the linear combination of the orthogonal Laguerre basis functions is the exact solutions of the Dirac equation for 3D hydrogen atom.

Helge Kragh

P. Strange

The Dirac equation is one of the fundamental equations in physics. Here we present and discuss two novel solutions of the free particle Dirac equation. These solutions have an exact analytical form in terms of Airy or Mathieu functions and exhibit unexpected properties including an enhanced Doppler effect, accelerating wavefronts and solutions with a degree of localization.

Hua Guo, 北京大学技术物理系和重离子物理研究所，北京 100871

By use of algebraic method, the exact solution of the time-dependent Dirac equation was obtained, and the exchange symmetry in the solution was discussed.