Douglas M. Gingrich Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
A particle physicist who authored a worked treatment of the Klein paradox for a spin-zero particle. Solving the Klein-Gordon equation at an electrostatic step requires tracking the sign of the charge current, rather than interpreting every transmitted amplitude as an ordinary positive-energy particle. The example connects boundary matching to the appearance of antiparticle and pair-creation interpretations in relativistic quantum theory.[ref]
Klein Paradox for Spin-0 Particles by Douglas M. Gingrich. Equations (4.137)–(4.155) and discussion of signed transmitted current
The negative-kinetic-energy branch is interpreted as an antiparticle channel. In the overlap , particles can escape to the left and oppositely charged antiparticles to the right. This interval exists only when . The external electrostatic source supplies the energy for pair creation; the reflected particle flux can exceed the incident one because the outgoing state need not contain only the incident particle.
The conserved quantity is signed charge current, not a positive one-particle probability in both regions. Negative denotes rightward transport of opposite charge, so it is consistent with and . A quantized charged field with particle and antiparticle creation operators gives the appropriate interpretation of this Klein paradox. This bosonic result must not be replaced by a fermionic reflection law or interpreted as a failure of charge conservation.[ref]
Klein Paradox for Spin-0 Particles by Douglas M. Gingrich. Discussion after equation 4.155: pair creation and the oppositely signed transmitted current