Use metric signature and the parity matrix . If a Dirac field transforms as , the chain rule changes the spatial derivatives' signs. Covariance of its Dirac equation therefore requires
The Clifford algebra gives precisely these identities for . In an irreducible Dirac representation any other solution differs by a scalar phase, because its ratio with commutes with all gamma matrices. With , the Dirac mass bilinear and kinetic term consequently obey
The factor compensates the sign reversal of spatial derivatives. A transformation containing only the argument change would not preserve the massive Dirac equation. This establishes parity symmetry of the free or vector-coupled Dirac theory; it does not make a chiral weak interaction parity symmetric.
For charge conjugation, transpose the adjoint Dirac equation to obtain . Multiplying by gives the original Dirac equation for if
One may choose unitary; in four dimensions a conventional choice in a standard Dirac or chiral basis is , with . Its overall phase and do not affect the following bilinear transformation. Reordering the Grassmann fermion fields gives, for a color matrix commuting with the gamma matrices,
Thus a vector color current changes sign and transposes its color generator under charge conjugation.
Write the Hermitian color connection as . The interaction coming from is . Its charge-conjugation symmetry requires . Parity acts on the Lorentz index as on a vector connection, so combining the two gives
In components, and . The transpose is a color-space transpose, independent of the spinor matrix . Intrinsic fermion phases cancel between a field and its adjoint.
Define the matrix gauge field strength unambiguously by
The derivative terms transform with the expected parity factors and a minus transpose. For the commutator, the crucial identity is , so the nonlinear term has the same transformation as the derivative terms. This is the CP transformation of non-Abelian field strength:
For example, while . With , the color sum in the theta operator is twice a trace of two field strengths. The two charge-conjugation minus signs cancel, and transposition reverses the trace factors without changing their trace. The four parity matrices contracted with the Levi-Civita symbol contribute . Hence
The theta operator is CP odd; a generic fixed nonzero coefficient violates CP. Setting the coefficient to zero removes this term. Although the density is locally a total derivative, nontrivial gauge topology means that it need not be irrelevant to the quantum theory. If a properly normalized theta angle is identified periodically, invariance at special values equivalent to their negatives is a separate global question; it does not change the CP odd transformation of the local operator.
The strong-interaction matrix element between two spin-zero pseudoscalar mesons has only and available. The product of the two intrinsic parities is positive. An axial current would require a pseudovector constructed from these momenta, but an expression involving the Levi-Civita symbol needs three independent four-vectors and therefore vanishes. This is a consequence of parity conservation in the hadronic matrix element, not of parity conservation in the weak interaction. The vector current can have the two independent structures and . Its coefficients are Lorentz scalars; with and fixed, their only varying invariant is . Hence
These are the pseudoscalar-to-pseudoscalar form factors. With relativistically normalized states they are dimensionless. The vanishing axial matrix element and this decomposition explain the two equalities separately.
Write and for the outgoing electron and antineutrino momenta. From the Fermi interaction, an invariant scattering amplitude, up to an irrelevant overall sign or phase, is
The CKM matrix element multiplies the quark current in the convention of this interaction. Let . For massless leptons, the massless Dirac equation and chirality matrix anticommutation give
In the second term move through the chiral projector before applying . Since , this transverse massless leptonic current gives
The disappearance of uses the massless approximation; for a massive charged lepton its contraction is proportional to the lepton mass.
Use the fermion spin sum and the supplied gamma matrix trace identities. The symmetric part of the leptonic tensor is
The Levi-Civita symbol term is antisymmetric and drops out when contracted with . Thus
There is no initial-spin average because the kaon is spinless. For the integrated massless leptonic tensor, keep every factor of explicit and define the unnormalized two-lepton Lorentz-invariant phase space
The leptons are massless, so . Its trace is . Therefore
The three Lorentz-invariant phase-space measures and their momentum delta function contribute , in addition to in the decay rate. Combining them with the spin sum gives
This massless semileptonic pseudoscalar decay rate uses a two-lepton integral over future-timelike and the pion integral is restricted to the physically allowed region. The null endpoint follows by continuity. The coefficient has mass dimension , so the complete expression has mass dimension one, as a decay rate must in natural units.
In the kaon centre-of-momentum frame, put and . Then
The dimensionally consistent Källén function is
The pion-only mass term must have fourth power: the second power printed in the PDF is dimensionally inconsistent. This repair also follows directly from squaring . Angular integration and the change of variable give
where the negative sign reverses the endpoints. Combining this with the bracket yields
Thus . The lower limit is the minimum invariant mass of two massless leptons; at the upper limit the pion is at rest. The coefficient has mass dimension , while has dimension eight. The Källén function also shows why the differential decay rate vanishes at zero pion momentum.
Use the metric and the usual Dirac adjoint .
Field transformation. The mode expansion of a Dirac field is
Charge conjugation exchanges particle and antiparticle operators. Choose their phases so that
The conjugate relations for creation and annihilation operators preserve their canonical anticommutation relations. Thus the transformed expansion is times the same integral with replaced by and replaced by . On the other hand, transposing the adjoint expansion gives . The given spinor identities identify these expressions, proving
Symmetry of the spin matrix. Transposing gives . Substitute and multiply on the right by :
The complex four-dimensional Clifford algebra representation generated by the gamma matrices is irreducible; equivalently its sixteen independent gamma products span the full matrix algebra. The Schur lemma therefore gives . Hence . Transposing once more gives , so and
This is the transpose symmetry of a charge-conjugation matrix. The given antisymmetric choice is consistent with this conclusion.
Equation of motion. Taking the adjoint of the free Dirac equation yields . Its transpose, multiplied by , is
The defining matrix relation converts this into
Thus the charge conjugation of a Dirac field maps free solutions to free solutions. With an external electromagnetic field, its charge would also reverse; no such background is present here.
Chirality. Define the chiral projectors and . The operator acts on the field operators and commutes with these numerical matrices:
The transformed component is therefore left-chiral, as requested. There is a useful distinction: the algebraic charge conjugate of a left-chiral spinor is right-chiral. Indeed and give
This is the operator conjugation of a chiral field component; it avoids confusing projection after operator conjugation with charge conjugation of the already projected spinor.
Baryogenesis. Consider equal initial populations of a heavy particle and its antiparticle, with two baryon-number-violating decay channels carrying different final baryon numbers . Let and be the branching fractions into a channel and its antiparticle channel. The net baryon number produced per initial particle-antiparticle pair is
Exact charge conjugation symmetry equates the conjugate branching fractions and makes this vanish. Exact CP symmetry also equates the fully summed conjugate decay rates, because parity reverses momenta and helicities without changing baryon number. Thus both violation of charge conjugation and CP violation are necessary for generating an asymmetry from a symmetric initial state.
Violation of charge conjugation alone can generate a helicity asymmetry while leaving total baryon number zero. For example, with denoting helicities, CP symmetry may enforce and the analogous relation with exchanged, even when same-helicity charge-conjugate rates differ. The CP rate cancellation in baryogenesis means that summing over helicities cancels the baryon asymmetry. These are the symmetry requirements in the Sakharov conditions; baryon-number violation and departure from thermal equilibrium are also needed in the conventional decay mechanism.
The operator is a fermionic annihilation operator for a particle with momentum and spin label ; is a fermionic creation operator for the corresponding antiparticle. The c-number Dirac spinors and solve the positive-energy particle and antiparticle equations respectively. They supply the spinor wavefunctions in the mode expansion of a Dirac field; they are not creation or annihilation operators.
Apply the specified parity transformation to the two operators in the mode expansion of a Dirac field:
Relabel . The momentum sum is unchanged, , and the spinor identities give and . The two minus signs in the antiparticle term cancel. Therefore
Taking the Hermitian conjugate and using , in the Dirac adjoint yields
The unit-modulus intrinsic-parity phase cancels from all neutral fermion bilinears.
Use the printed gamma matrix conventions throughout, in particular . The transpose identity for gives , and its Hermitian conjugate gives the corresponding identity for . Thus the Dirac adjoint of the charge-conjugated field is
Reordering the anticommuting components of the fermion bilinear supplies a minus sign:
Invariance for arbitrary fields therefore requires , so the charge-conjugation matrix is a unitary matrix. This is the required normalization constraint; it is not a bosonic reordering calculation.
For a spinor matrix , the same calculation and the given give
With and , the supplied transpose identities imply
Consequently the vector current is C-odd and the axial current is C-even: and .
For parity, put . The gamma matrix identities and give
Thus is P-even and P-odd, whereas is P-odd and P-even. The axial current transforms as a pseudovector.
Keep the color matrix intact: . Under parity, invariance of its contraction with the vector current requires
Under charge conjugation, the fermionic reordering in part (b) transposes the color matrix as well as the spinor matrix. For a fixed color matrix , becomes . Hence invariance of the interaction requires
This is not a rule that changes the sign of every individual color component: transposition also acts on the generators of the fundamental representation.
Write the gauge field strength as . Since , the charge conjugation rule gives . Including the coordinate reflection in CP symmetry,
For generators normalized by , the color contraction equals . The two charge-conjugation minus signs cancel, and transposition reverses the order inside the trace without changing it. The Levi-Civita symbol acquires under the remaining reflection. Thus
The Yang-Mills theta term is CP-odd; a generic fixed nonzero produces CP violation. Setting removes this source. Although the density is a total derivative, it can affect the quantum theory through nontrivial topological sectors; the local transformation test is not rendered irrelevant by that fact.
Define the parity operator by . For the usual full-line Hamiltonian operator, or any parity-invariant operator domain and boundary conditions, an even potential gives : the second derivative is unchanged by reflection and . If , then . A nondegenerate energy eigenvalue has a one-dimensional eigenspace, so for some scalar . Since , . Hence
Thus the stationary state has even or odd parity. The symmetry must include the operator domain: an even potential alone would not imply this conclusion with asymmetric boundary conditions.
The Skyrme model represents the three pions by a field in the special unitary group ,
with Pauli matrices . Near , the three tangent components are the pion fields, with a normalization scale suppressed here. Define . In one useful sign convention with metric , the action consists of
where and the last term is optional, with proportional to a common pion mass squared. The first term is a nonlinear sigma model kinetic term, and the second is the four-derivative term of the Skyrme model. For a static configuration of size , the two derivative contributions scale as and , whereas a mass term scales as . This Derrick scaling explains why the four-derivative term can stabilize a finite size instead of allowing collapse.
A finite-energy field configuration approaches a vacuum, conventionally . Compactifying space makes a map . The topological baryon number in the Skyrme model is its degree of a map between oriented manifolds,
The sign convention makes the standard decreasing hedgehog have . Smooth evolution with the vacuum boundary condition preserves this integer. A Skyrmion is a localized soliton in such a sector; the unit soliton, after quantization, models a nucleon, and higher positive charges model multi-baryon systems. The topological conservation law is distinct from an ordinary Noether charge of isospin. Classical pion fields are bosonic, so obtaining fermionic nucleons also needs the quantum-statistics choice discussed below.
The derivative theory has global chiral symmetry , acting by . The simultaneous pair acts trivially, so the faithful connected action can also be viewed as on . In the massless theory the choice of vacuum breaks this to the vector subgroup. For fixed , the vacuum-preserving symmetry of the Skyrme model requires and acts by . This is isospin, effectively because and act the same way. A usual common pion-mass term explicitly preserves only this vector subgroup; full chiral symmetry is then an approximate massless-limit symmetry, not an exact symmetry of that term. Independent axial rotations change the vacuum and are not extra localized rigid-rotor coordinates in a sector with fixed boundary vacuum.
The space-time symmetry is the Poincare group, comprising translations and Lorentz transformations, including spatial rotations. Parity acts as , since pions are pseudoscalars. For a static finite-energy solution, translations change its position; spatial rotations and isorotations change its orientation. These transformations generate collective coordinates, but a particular field can be unchanged by certain combined transformations.
For the usual low-charge minimum branches of the standard model, the relevant shapes and density symmetries are the following. These are not claims about every field of a given degree, all excited solutions or arbitrary modified pion potentials.
Figure 1.
Schematic Skyrmion configurations
. Schematic shapes of the Skyrme baryon density at low charge: sphere, torus, tetrahedral shell and cubic shell. They show shape and symmetry, rather than numerically computed density isosurfaces.
For , the Skyrmion hedgehog ansatz is
Its Skyrme baryon density is spherical. Indeed . A spatial rotation rotates the pion direction, so the field itself is invariant under a compensating isorotation, not under every spatial rotation alone. Its proper combined stabilizer is a diagonal .
For , the toroidal two-Skyrmion has a ring-shaped density with an axial hole and full density symmetry . The proper combined field stabilizer is an -type group: its continuous subgroup pairs axial spatial rotation by with isorotation by , and it also has discrete transverse half-turns. The angular approximation makes the axial factor two explicit. A static two-baryon minimum is consequently not simply two separate round unit lumps.
For , the tetrahedral three-Skyrmion has a tetrahedral shell with four face-hole directions and full density group . Its proper rotational group is , the tetrahedral symmetry group of order 12. The actual field symmetries again pair these rotations with isorotations.
For , the cubic four-Skyrmion has a cubic shell with six face-hole directions. Its full density group is , the symmetry group of a cube, and its proper group is , the rotational symmetry group of a cube of order 24. Cubic and octahedral symmetry name the same point group; this particular density shape is cubic. Reflections in these full density groups should not be confused with the proper rotation-isorotation group used for angular-momentum quantization.
As a concrete independent check on these shape symmetries, the rational map approximation for Skyrmions uses
with and . Representative maps are
Their degrees are , and with the stated radial boundary conditions their baryon numbers equal these degrees. The angular Jacobian of a rational map is . It vanishes at branch directions. has uniform angular density; has its two branch directions on the axial poles; the Wronskian of a rational map for is proportional to , giving tetrahedrally arranged holes; has branch directions , giving the six cube-face directions. Also pairs a spatial quarter-turn with an isospin half-turn. These give illustrative approximate fields, not exact analytic solutions or a proof of global energy minimality.
To quantize, first distinguish the model's group from the chosen soliton's stabilizer subgroup . A family of the same static energy is
Ignoring translations for the moment, , and different rigid orientations form the Skyrmion collective-coordinate orbit . The connected stabilizer dimensions are for the four shapes, so their orientation-orbit dimensions are ; adding translations gives . For the unit hedgehog, treating rotation and isorotation as six independent modes would double-count its locked orientation. For higher charges, arbitrary separation of constituent lumps is not an exact flat moduli space in this non-Bogomolny theory.
Let the orbit coordinates depend slowly on time. Integrating the kinetic terms gives a collective-coordinate effective Lagrangian , with positive kinetic metric after removing redundant stabilizer directions. Its angular blocks are the spatial, isospin and mixed inertia tensors. Collective-coordinate quantization produces a rotor Hamiltonian on this orbit, with translations giving center-of-mass momentum. The global symmetry supplies states transforming in spin- and isospin- group representations, and the associated conserved angular momenta. Inertia tensors determine energy splittings; group symmetry alone does not specify those tensors or their numerical energies.
The topology and the static stabilizer supply further collective-rotation constraints for a Skyrmion. The degree- configuration space has fundamental group , related to . Choosing the nontrivial Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints character gives fermionic unit baryons. Wavefunctions live on the appropriate cover, and a lifted stabilizer operation obeys
The sign depends on whether the actual field-configuration loop is contractible, not just on whether the density looks symmetric. A spatial rotation or isorotation has sign in this fermionic choice, so
Thus odd baryon number requires half-integer spin and isospin; even baryon number requires integers. Discrete or continuous combined stabilizer symmetries impose additional restrictions on the allowed pairs and body-fixed rotor states. They must not simply be omitted, or replaced by trivial invariance under every density symmetry. The trivial character is a possible bosonic quantization but would not produce a fermionic nucleon. Improper field symmetries, implemented using the model parity transformation, can additionally constrain parity labels; scalar-density reflection symmetry alone is insufficient to infer those labels.
For example, the two-Skyrmion axial stabilizer can be written in body-axis conventions as , with the spatial and the isospin generators. A transverse spatial half-turn accompanied by an isospin half-turn has the nontrivial sign in the Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints. The integer-spin scalar state is therefore excluded despite even . A spin-one, isospin-zero state with zero axial body projection has the required minus sign under that half-turn; the spin-zero, isospin-one channel can also satisfy the constraints. Their relative energies require the inertia tensors.
For the unit hedgehog, these requirements reduce to rotational quantization of a unit Skyrmion: one orientation with has . With the energies are , where is its moment of inertia. Since , the purely rotational hedgehog band has positive parity; vibrational excitations need not share it. The multiplet models the spin-half proton/neutron isospin doublet; gives the Delta baryon multiplet. The familiar lowest rotor assignments for are respectively . These assignments incorporate the corresponding field-stabilizer constraints and standard inertia ordering, not a prediction from density shape alone. Deformations, vibrational modes, radiation and binding dynamics lie beyond the rigid approximation. The two symmetry roles are therefore
Define interaction-picture states by and . Differentiation cancels the free Hamiltonian operator and yields
Assume the interaction is switched off sufficiently fast in the remote past for the following integral to converge. Starting in , the first iteration of the integral equation gives
for . The picture change only multiplies the measured amplitude by a phase. Squaring therefore gives
For the harmonic oscillator, is normalized and . The energy difference is , and
Hence the lowest nonzero transition probability is
The stronger remainder here follows from parity: every insertion of reverses oscillator parity, so the amplitude between and has only odd powers of . The general displayed estimate remains valid.
An even potential preserves parity. Its Hamiltonian operator commutes with the parity operator, so an even incoming solution produces only an even outgoing solution, and similarly for an odd one. Thus
An asymmetric potential generically couples the parity channels; an accidental vanishing at one energy does not imply the symmetry for all energies.
For the odd channel, solve on with . Inside , write ; outside write , respecting the outgoing odd-channel minus sign. Continuity at and the delta-potential derivative jump are
Eliminating yields
The equations remain valid when by taking the limiting value, rather than dividing blindly. For real , numerator and denominator inside the fraction are complex conjugates and the prefactor has unit modulus. Thus . This is conservation of flux in the odd parity channel: the real potential causes only a phase shift there, not absorption. It does not assert unit left-to-right transmission in the usual incident-from-one-side basis.
The intrinsic parity of a particle is the parity eigenvalue of its one-particle state at rest:
For the particles in this question, . A two-particle state has multiparticle parity , where is its relative orbital angular momentum.
The pionic-deuterium ground state has atomic . Since the pion has spin zero, its total angular momentum is therefore the deuteron spin, , and its parity is . The two neutrons are identical fermions. Their antisymmetric spin-one-half singlet state would require even orbital , but and would instead require . Hence they must occupy the symmetric spin-one-half triplet state, so the orbital state is antisymmetric and is odd. The addition of angular momentum with permits , leaving . Thus parity conservation gives
so the pion has intrinsic parity .
In , the final total spin is . Coupling it to to obtain gives
so the allowed orbital angular momenta are . The observed angular probability is , where is a Legendre polynomial; it therefore selects the partial wave rather than . The parity selection rule for a two-body decay now gives
Therefore the delta particle has intrinsic parity .