On properties of the discrete and continuous spectrum for the radial Dirac equation (Q1817626)

The author investigates the radial part of the Dirac equation with an additional to Coulomb potential. The motivation is to characterize the nature of the spectrum. The concept of a quantum defect, similar to that of the radial Schrödinger equation was introduced previously by the author. In this paper, some results pertaining to quantum defects of discrete and continuous specra of the radial Dirac equation announced before hand are proved and theorems on quantum defects to the case of nonregular potentials are extended. Most importantly, the author presents explicit expressions for the quantum defects of discrete and continuous spectra for regular potentials and points out that they are the same as in the nonrelativistic theory.