Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-42/4/a/solution

A two-component Weyl spinor is a complex spinor transforming in one of the two inequivalent group representations and of the Lorentz spinor double cover . An undotted left-handed field transforms by a matrix ; its complex conjugate transforms by . Dotted and undotted indices distinguish the two chirality representations. Raising a dotted index uses the invariant epsilon tensor and converts the complex conjugate transformation into the equivalent inverse-adjoint form. Rotations act by the same SU(2) generators on the two chiralities, while boosts have opposite generators, so the two complex representations cannot be identified by a complex-linear Lorentz invariant map.
The antisymmetric invariant tensors and raise and lower spinor indices; proves invariance of the contracted bilinear . The components of a fermionic Weyl spinor are odd Grassmann variables, so this bilinear is symmetric under exchange of the two spinors: the antisymmetric epsilon sign cancels the Grassmann sign. In particular, choosing and gives , generally nonzero. This Weyl spinor bilinear exchange identity permits a Majorana mass term for a single suitable Weyl spinor. With mostly-minus metric signature and , the free massless kinetic term is , and its field equation of motion is .

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