Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/iii/paper-305/1/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 305 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The operator is a fermionic annihilation operator for a particle with momentum and spin label ; is a fermionic creation operator for the corresponding antiparticle. The c-number Dirac spinors and solve the positive-energy particle and antiparticle equations respectively. They supply the spinor wavefunctions in the mode expansion of a Dirac field; they are not creation or annihilation operators.
Apply the specified parity transformation to the two operators in the mode expansion of a Dirac field:Relabel . The momentum sum is unchanged, , and the spinor identities give and . The two minus signs in the antiparticle term cancel. ThereforeTaking the Hermitian conjugate and using , in the Dirac adjoint yieldsThe unit-modulus intrinsic-parity phase cancels from all neutral fermion bilinears.
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