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Dirac Equation - Positive Probabilities and Negative Energies

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14 views2 pages

Dirac Equation - Positive Probabilities and Negative Energies

Uploaded by

ibrahim salum
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DIRAC EQUATION - POSITIVE PROBABILITIES AND

NEGATIVE ENERGIES

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Post date: 26 August 2023.
One problem with the Klein-Gordon equation in relativistic quantum me-
chanics is that the probability of finding the system in some state can be
positive (for particles) or negative (for antiparticles). The Dirac equation
solves this problem, as Klauber shows in his equations 4-36 through 4-38.
We’ll summarize these results here.
The solutions to the Dirac equation are

 
1
0
r
E E +m  
 −ipx
ψ (1)
= p3 e ≡ u1 e−ipx (1)

2m 

E+m 
p1 +ip2
E+m
 
0
1
r
E E +m  
 −ipx
ψ (2)
= p1 −ip2 e ≡ u2 e−ipx (2)

2m 

E+m 
p3
− E+m
 
p3
r E+m 
(3)
E E +m  p1 +ip2  ipx
ψ = E+m  e ≡ v2 eipx (3)

2m 

1 
0
 
p1 −ip2
r E+m
E +m  p3
E 
ψ (4) =
 − E+m  ipx
 e ≡ v1 eipx (4)
2m 

0 
1

Since the Dirac equation is linear, any linear combination of these solu-
tions is also a solution, so the most general solution is
1
DIRAC EQUATION - POSITIVE PROBABILITIES AND NEGATIVE ENERGIES 2

2
m h
r i
|ψi = ∑ ∑ Cr (p) ur (p) e−ipx + Dr† (p) vr (p) eipx (5)
p r=1 V Ep
where Cr and Dr are constant (independent of x) coefficients.
The probability density ρ for the Dirac equation is

ρ = ψ̄ γ 0 ψ (6)
where ψ̄ is an adjoint solution and despite the bracket notation, there is no
integration over space involved in the definition of ρ. The total probability
of the system being in some state can be found by integrating ρ over space.
This involves using the orthogonality of the solutions and inner products of
the spinors (details in Klauber as mentioned above). The results for a state
that consists entirely of Cr terms (all Dr are zero) is that
Z
ρd3 x = ∑ |Cr (p)|2 = 1 (7)
r,p
where we have imposed the “= 1” since the total probability must be one.
For a state consisting entirely of Dr terms (all Cr are zero), we get the
result
Z
ρd3 x = ∑ |Dr (p)|2 = 1 (8)
r,p
The crucial difference between Klein-Gordon and Dirac is that with Dirac,
both probabilities are positive.
The Dirac equation does, however, still give both positive and negative
energies for a free particle. The Hamiltonian can be written using the oper-
∂
ator i ∂t so applying this to 1 or 2 above we get
∂
u1,2 e−ipx = p0 u1,2 e−ipx = +Ep u1,2 e−ipx

i (9)
∂t
And applying to 3 or 4 we get
∂
v1,2 eipx = −p0 v1,2 eipx = −Ep v1,2 eipx

i (10)
∂t
Thus those terms in 5 with Cr coefficients have positive energy and terms
with Dr coefficients have negative energy.
P INGBACKS
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