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Chiral two-component spinors and the factorization of Kramers's equation

  • Part I. Invited Papers Dedicated To Nathan Rosen
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Abstract

Kramers's equation specialized to the Coulomb field is factored using a rotationally invariant, angular momentum based, algebra of three anticommuting operators. Comparing the explicit chiral two-component solutions for the factored equation to the two-component solutions defined by the Foldy-Wouthuysen series for the Dirac-Coulomb Hamiltonian, it is concluded that this series cannot converge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Particle Theory, Physics Department, University of Texas at Austin, 78712, Austin, Texas

    L. C. Biedenharn

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Ramat Aviv, Israel

    L. P. Horwitz

Authors
  1. L. C. Biedenharn
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  2. L. P. Horwitz
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Additional information

Supported in part by the National Science Foundation.

On leave from Physics Department, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27706.

Supported in part by the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities Basic Research Foundation.

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Biedenharn, L.C., Horwitz, L.P. Chiral two-component spinors and the factorization of Kramers's equation. Found Phys 14, 953–961 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01889247

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01889247

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