Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/4/b/solution

The two Weyl spinors transform in the inequivalent left- and right-chiral representations of the proper Lorentz group. They are selected by and have different boost transformation laws; parity exchanges the two. A massive Dirac equation couples them, whereas in the massless limit they can propagate independently.
For the particular printed in this paper, transforming its supplied Dirac gives
Thus the upper block is right chiral and the lower block left chiral in this convention. Many references use the opposite block order; neither convention changes physics, but they must not be mixed. Chirality is not generally the same as helicity for a massive electron. The weak charged current selects the left-chiral electron component, reducing to negative helicity at high energy.

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