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Journal of physics. A, Proceedings of the Physical Society. General

Is the sign change of spinors under 2π rotations observable?

J. S. Dowker

Published May 1, 1969• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Hegerfeldt and Kraus's criticisms (see abstr. A42300 of 1968) of Aharonov and Susskind's discussion (see abstr. A27919 of 1967) of the above question are investigated. It is shown that the rotation operator applied to a wave function can be equivalent to solving Schrodinger's equation if gravitational fields are present. The specific example of quantum mechanics on a cone is considered in detail.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/2/3/004

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Description of the Electron in the Electromagnetic Field: The Dirac Type Equation and the Equation for the Wave Function in Spinor Coordinate Space

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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 spinors - coordinate spinors, impulse spinors, spinor wave functions. 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 Schrödinger equation the wave function is represented by a single complex quantity, in the Dirac equation a step forward is taken and 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. Using the example of the interaction between an electron and an electromagnetic field, we can see that the spinor equation contains more detailed information about the interaction than the vector equations. This is not new for quantum mechanics, since it describes interactions using complex wave functions, which cannot be observed directly, and only when measured goes to probabilities in the form of squares of the moduli 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 section 3 of the paper this quadratic form is expressed through momentum spinors, which makes it possible to obtain an equation for the spinor wave function in spinor coordinate space by replacing the momentum spinor components by partial derivative operators on the corresponding coordinate spinor component. At the end of the paper the question on a possibility of second quantization of the electron field in the spinor coordinate space is touch upon. The statement that the electron and positron have the same, and exactly positive energy, and have opposite signs of charge and opposite signs of mass is also justified. Accordingly, in the process of annihilation their total energy, momentum, charge and mass do not change. It is shown that if we take as an axiom the conservation at interaction of the total mass of the system of particles taking into account its sign, then it is possible to explain the difference between bosons and fermions in the statistics to which they obey.

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Hegerfeldt and Kraus's criticisms (see abstr. A42300 of 1968) of Aharonov and Susskind's discussion (see abstr. A27919 of 1967) of the above question are investigated. It is shown that the rotation operator applied to a wave function can be equivalent to solving Schrodinger's equation if gravitational fields are present. The specific example of quantum mechanics on a cone is considered in detail.
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 spinors - coordinate spinors, impulse spinors, spinor wave functions. 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 Schrödinger equation the wave function is represented by a single complex quantity, in the Dirac equation a step forward is taken and 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. Using the example of the interaction between an electron and an electromagnetic field, we can see that the spinor equation contains more detailed information about the interaction than the vector equations. This is not new for quantum mechanics, since it describes interactions using complex wave functions, which cannot be observed directly, and only when measured goes to probabilities in the form of squares of the moduli 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 section 3 of the paper this quadratic form is expressed through momentum spinors, which makes it possible to obtain an equation for the spinor wave function in spinor coordinate space by replacing the momentum spinor components by partial derivative operators on the corresponding coordinate spinor component. At the end of the paper the question on a possibility of second quantization of the electron field in the spinor coordinate space is touch upon. The statement that the electron and positron have the same, and exactly positive energy, and have opposite signs of charge and opposite signs of mass is also justified. Accordingly, in the process of annihilation their total energy, momentum, charge and mass do not change. It is shown that if we take as an axiom the conservation at interaction of the total mass of the system of particles taking into account its sign, then it is possible to explain the difference between bosons and fermions in the statistics to which they obey.
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 spinors - coordinate spinors, impulse spinors, spinor wave functions. 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 Schrödinger equation the wave function is represented by a single complex quantity, in the Dirac equation a step forward is taken and 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. Using the example of the interaction between an electron and an electromagnetic field, we can see that the spinor equation contains more detailed information about the interaction than the vector equations. This is not new for quantum mechanics, since it describes interactions using complex wave functions, which cannot be observed directly, and only when measured goes to probabilities in the form of squares of the moduli 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 section 3 of the paper this quadratic form is expressed through momentum spinors, which makes it possible to obtain an equation for the spinor wave function in spinor coordinate space by replacing the momentum spinor components by partial derivative operators on the corresponding coordinate spinor component. At the end of the paper the question on a possibility of second quantization of the electron field in the spinor coordinate space is touch upon. The statement that the electron and positron have the same, and exactly positive energy, and have opposite signs of charge and opposite signs of mass is also justified. Accordingly, in the process of annihilation their total energy, momentum, charge and mass do not change. It is shown that if we take as an axiom the conservation at interaction of the total mass of the system of particles taking into account its sign, then it is possible to explain the difference between bosons and fermions in the statistics to which they obey.