Fundamental dynamical equations for spinor wavefunctions: I. Lévy-leblond and Schrödinger equations (Q2881350)

The reviewed paper is concerned with the investigation of the possible forms of partial differential equations describing two or four-component `spinor' functions in four-dimensional spacetime which are invariant under the Galilean transformations and whose phase function is a so-called Schrödinger phase function. Under the further assumption that the solutions of the equation transform like an irreducible representation of the Galilean group it is shown that there is no first order equation of that type for two-dimensional spinor functions and the only such equation for four-dimensional spinors is the Lévy-Leblond equation. The higher order versions of the Lévy-Leblond equation are also considered, and in particular its order 2 version is shown to be closely connected to the Schrödinger equation. The paper contains moreover a discussion of the corresponding properties of the Pauli-Schrödinger equation, physical consequences of the obtained results and connections to earlier work.