Dirac plane waves in the standard representation

ID: dirac-plane-waves-in-the-standard-representation

For and the block-diagonal standard representation of the gamma matrices, write a positive-energy Dirac spinor as . The Dirac equation gives . Choosing two orthonormal two-spinors yields the displayed positive-frequency solutions. Negative-frequency solutions are multiplying . They obey . Both have norm ; their Dirac adjoints give and . Spatial rotations act on each two-spinor with generators , explaining spin one-half.

New to topics? Read the docs here!