Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/6/b/solution

For either normalized two-spinor , gives
The Dirac equation alone does not fix : a normalization convention is needed. In the usual covariant external-spinor convention , choose real positive . Then and . A second common convention is unit rest density, , giving and density . Both explain why the boosted density is not one particle per unit coordinate volume: the density is a four-current component and changes under a Lorentz transformation.
One may instead choose unit laboratory density, , or box normalization for one particle in volume . An infinite plane wave is not normalizable to one particle over all space; a localized wave packet is required for that. Thus a unique cannot be inferred from the prompt without specifying which of these conventions is intended.

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