Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/4/c/solution
Past exam of the particle physics course of the University of Oxford 2018 4 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Put and assume . The common plane wave has unit modulus. The component norm isFor unit spinor probability density choosewhere was used. This is spinor normalization, not square normalization of a plane wave over infinite space; a box or wavepacket gives the corresponding spatial normalization. If the convention is instead , use .
For momentum along , the positive-helicity components are the first and third, while the second and fourth have negative helicity. HenceBoth are independent of speed. In the source's chiral block order the exact left-chiral weight is , tending to at high energy; helicity and chirality probabilities agree only in that limit.
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