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The Foldy-Wouthuysen Representation for Free Particles

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Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
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Abstract

As discussed in the previous chapters, the spinors in the Dirac theory consist of four components. In the nonrelativistic limit, for spinors belonging to positive (negative) energy states, the upper (lower) two components become large compared to the lower (upper) two components [cf. Chap. 2, Eqs. (2.44), (2.72)]. The question arises, whether there exists a representation that reflects this property as a general feature, i.e. also for large velocities of the particles.

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Greiner, W. (1990). The Foldy-Wouthuysen Representation for Free Particles. In: Relativistic Quantum Mechanics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-88082-7_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-88082-7_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-99535-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-88082-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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