Geometry of the electron local observables (Q643671)

An electron is described by a four-component spinor wave function \(|\psi(\vec{x},t)\rangle\). In this paper, the author considers local observables for the electron. These are of the form \( \langle \psi(\vec{x},t) | \Gamma | \psi(\vec{x},t) \rangle, \) where \(\Gamma\) is one of the sixteen Hermitian \(4 \times 4\) matrices. One can now ask the following question: At a given space-time point \((\vec{x},t)\), how many of the local observables are independent. This is the topic of the paper. The issue has been discussed in parts already in the literature, but the present paper offers a complete and exhaustive solution. The answer to the above question is that there are seven independent real local observables. Intuitively this is clear from the fact, that the wave-function consists of eight real quantities (it is complex vector with four components). The local observables involve the wave function and its hermitian conjugate, in this combination an overall phase drops out, leaving seven independent real quantities. The author derive relations between the local observables by making use of Fierz relations. The author discusses several choices for the set of independent local observables and gives a geometric interpretation for these choices. The exposition is very detailed and will not leave any questions open.