Scribd
Upload
201 views3 pages

Lahiri & Pal Problems 04.10

1) Dirac spinors satisfy equations involving the Dirac operator (/p - m) acting on them. 2) The product of a Dirac spinor with itself is a 4x4 matrix. If you sum over the spinor indices, the result equals the Dirac operator plus or minus the mass. 3) This identity can be proven by applying both sides of the equations to the basis spinor vectors and showing they have the same effect.

Uploaded by

sayandatta1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
201 views3 pages

Lahiri & Pal Problems 04.10

1) Dirac spinors satisfy equations involving the Dirac operator (/p - m) acting on them. 2) The product of a Dirac spinor with itself is a 4x4 matrix. If you sum over the spinor indices, the result equals the Dirac operator plus or minus the mass. 3) This identity can be proven by applying both sides of the equations to the basis spinor vectors and showing they have the same effect.

Uploaded by

sayandatta1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

DIRAC SPINORS: PRODUCTS OF SPINORS

Link to: physicspages home page.


To leave a comment or report an error, please use the auxiliary blog.
Post date: 14 June 2018.
References: Amitabha Lahiri & P. B. Pal, A First Book of Quantum Field
Theory, Second Edition (Alpha Science International, 2004) - Chapter 4,
Problem 4.10.
The Dirac spinors satisfy the relations


/p − m us (p) = 0 (1)

/p + m vs (p) = 0 (2)

us (p) /p − m = 0 (3)

vs (p) /p + m = 0 (4)
where a barred spinor is defined by

ψ ≡ ψ †γ 0 (5)
Each spinor is a 4-component column vector, while the barred versions
are each a 4-component row vector. Therefore, if we form the product us us
we get a 4 × 4 matrix. If we sum over the two s indexes, we can prove the
identities

∑ us (p) us (p) = /p + m (6)


s

∑ vs (p) vs (p) = /p − m (7)


s

We can show this by applying both sides of each equation to each of the
four basis vectors us and vs , where s can be + or − in each case. For the
LHS, we can use the results

us (p) ur (p) = 2mδrs (8)


vs (p) vr (p) = −2mδrs (9)
For example (all spinors are functions of p):
1
DIRAC SPINORS: PRODUCTS OF SPINORS 2

 
∑ usus u− = u+ u+ u− + u− u− u− (10)
s
= 0 + 2mu− (11)
= 2mu− (12)
The RHS is, using 1

 
/p + m u− = /p − m + 2m u− (13)

= /p − m u− + 2mu− (14)
= 2mu− (15)
Thus ∑s us (p) us (p) has the same effect on u− as /p +m. The same argument
works for u+ .
For v− , we can use the relation

ur (p) vs (p) = 0 (16)


Thus

∑ ususvs = 0 (17)
s
and from 2

/p + m vs (p) = 0 (18)
Thus 6 is true when both sides are applied to all four basis vectors.
The argument for 7 is essentially the same. For example, for the LHS:
 
∑ vsvs v− = v+ v+ v− + v− v− v− (19)
s
= 0 − 2mv− (20)
= −2mv− (21)
and for the RHS

 
/p − m v− = /p + m − 2m v− (22)
= −2mv− (23)
Since both sides of both equations 6 and 7 have the same effect on all four
basis vectors, the operators are equivalent.
DIRAC SPINORS: PRODUCTS OF SPINORS 3

P INGBACKS
Pingback: Anticommutation relations and Hamiltonian for Dirac field
Pingback: Alternative normalization for Dirac spinors
Pingback: Propagator for the Dirac field as a time-ordered product

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy