The ``electromagnetic'' Wigner equation for an electron with spin (Q914069)

The `electromagnetic' Wigner equation, \[ w_ t+(p/m)w_ x-e/i\hslash [\phi (x+i(\hslash /2)\partial /\partial p)-\rho (x-i(\hslash /2)\partial /\partial p)]w=0, \] is extended to the case of an electron with spin in an external electromagnetic field in three dimensions. Due to the spin- field interaction a \(2\times 2\)-matrix valued electron Wigner function has to be considered. Existence and uniqueness of the linear initial value problem is proved by using semigroup theory. Expanding the solution into a series of pure state, we derive the existence of a generalized particle density and an \(L^{\infty}\)-estimate on the solution. The last section is devoted to an analysis of the classical and electrostatic limits, i.e. Planck constant \(\hslash \to 0\) and light velocity \(c\to \infty\), resp.