Analysis as a source of geometry: a non-geometric representation of the Dirac equation

DOI10.1088/1751-8113/48/16/165203zbMATH Open1312.81062arXiv1401.3160OpenAlexW3102751566MaRDI QIDQ5248752FDOQ5248752

Dmitri Vassiliev, Yan-Long Fang

Publication date: 8 May 2015

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

Abstract: Consider a formally self-adjoint first order linear differential operator acting on pairs (2-columns) of complex-valued scalar fields over a 4-manifold without boundary. We examine the geometric content of such an operator and show that it implicitly contains a Lorentzian metric, Pauli matrices, connection coefficients for spinor fields and an electromagnetic covector potential. This observation allows us to give a simple representation of the massive Dirac equation as a system of four scalar equations involving an arbitrary two-by-two matrix operator as above and its adjugate. The point of the paper is that in order to write down the Dirac equation in the physically meaningful 4-dimensional hyperbolic setting one does not need any geometric constructs. All the geometry required is contained in a single analytic object - an abstract formally self-adjoint first order linear differential operator acting on pairs of complex-valued scalar fields.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.3160

zbMATH Keywords

Dirac equationgauge theoryanalysis of partial differential equations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Yang-Mills and other gauge theories in mechanics of particles and systems (70S15) Electromagnetic theory (general) (78A25) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Selfadjoint operator theory in quantum theory, including spectral analysis (81Q10) Quantum mechanics on special spaces: manifolds, fractals, graphs, lattices (81Q35) Geometry and quantization, symplectic methods (81S10) Special relativity (83A05)

Cited In (3)

• Classification of first order sesquilinear forms
• Analytic definition of spin structure
• Spectral analysis of the Dirac operator on a 3-sphere

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