Comment on `Dirac theory in spacetime algebra'

DOI10.1088/0305-4470/35/22/401MaRDI QIDQ4465745zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors W. E. Baylis

Publication date 9 June 2004

Published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0202060

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Spinor and twistor methods applied to problems in quantum theory (81R25) Covariant wave equations in quantum theory, relativistic quantum mechanics (81R20) Clifford algebras, spinors (15A66)

Abstract: In contrast to formulations of the Dirac theory by Hestenes and by the current author, the formulation recently presented by W. P. Joyce [J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 34 (2001) 1991--2005] is equivalent to the usual Dirac equation only in the case of vanishing mass. For nonzero mass, solutions to Joyce's equation can be solutions either of the Dirac equation in the Hestenes form or of the same equation with the sign of the mass reversed, and in general they are mixtures of the two possibilities. Because of this relationship, Joyce obtains twice as many linearly independent plane-wave solutions for a given momentum eigenvalue as exist in the conventional theory. A misconception about the symmetry of the Hestenes equation and the geometric significance of the algebraic spinors is also briefly discussed.

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