Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 45 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the metric and . Transposing a product reverses its order but does not conjugate the factor . Thus the charge-conjugation matrix identity giveswhere reversing the four distinct gamma matrices requires six exchanges. Similarly,
To fix the transpose sign, work in the Weyl representation of the gamma matrices:The Pauli identity checks directly, and gives , with . Any other intertwiner differs from by a scalar: its ratio with commutes with all gamma matrices, whose products span the full four-by-four matrix algebra. A matrix commuting with all matrix units is scalar. Under a spinor basis change , the intertwiner becomes , whose transpose is still its negative. Therefore in every such four-component representationThis proves the antisymmetry of the four-dimensional charge-conjugation matrix, rather than leaving the sign undetermined by the general transpose argument.
Hermitian conjugating the charged Dirac equation, using real and , gives the adjoint Dirac equationTranspose it and multiply by . Since , the field obtained by charge conjugation obeysThus algebraic charge conjugation reverses the electromagnetic coupling.
If , , Hermiticity of and its anticommutation with implyUsing the first transpose identity,Hence : algebraic charge conjugation reverses chirality. This concerns conjugating the already projected spinor, not the distinct operation of keeping a chiral projector outside an operator conjugation.
For the Grassmann variation of a chiral Majorana mass term, variations of odd fields must be moved past odd fields with a minus sign. If , componentwise reordering givesBoth and are antisymmetric. Treating independently, integrating the kinetic variation by parts, and placing varied Grassmann fields on the left givesThe factors two from variation cancel the mass-term factors . The first coefficient gives one equation; multiplying the second by gives the other:The variations can be restricted to their chiral subspaces: the two terms in each equation have the same opposite output chirality, so no inactive component equation has been imposed.
Applying to the first equation and substituting the second, using , givesA phase rotation removes the phase of , and combining the chiral field with its conjugate then gives a Majorana fermion of this mass, not two independent chiral species.
Let and . Question 1 shows they are gauge singlets, so both terms in preserve electroweak gauge invariance. The original PDF has in the first term; the TeX aid incorrectly replaces it by . At the Higgs field vacuum,soComparing with the just-derived chiral mass equations yields the Majorana neutrino mass from the Weinberg operator:For nonzero this generates a mass without introducing a right-handed neutrino. Under lepton number rotation , the first operator acquires and its conjugate acquires . Thus the interaction violates lepton number by . Each composite contains one scalar of mass dimension one and one fermion of dimension , so the interaction is dimension five and has dimension . This is the Weinberg operator, an effective extension of the minimal renormalizable Standard Model, consistent with the absence of bare quadratic masses in Question 1.