Null surfaces, initial values, and evolution operators for spinor fields

DOI10.1063/1.531449MaRDI QIDQ5284294zbMATHOpenAlexFDO

Authors Ronald J. Adler, Ovid C. Jacob

Publication date 22 January 1997

Published in Journal of Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9510048

zbMATH Keywords

Cauchy problemcharacteristic surfacesnull surfacesinitial value problem for spinor fields obeying the free particle Dirac equation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

PDEs in connection with quantum mechanics (35Q40) Spinor and twistor methods applied to problems in quantum theory (81R25)

Abstract: We analyze the initial value problem for spinor fields obeying the Dirac equation, with particular attention to the characteristic surfaces. The standard Cauchy initial value problem for first order differential equations is to construct a solution function in a neighborhood of space and time from the values of the function on a selected initial value surface. On the characteristic surfaces the solution function may be discontinuous, so the standard Cauchy construction breaks down. For the Dirac equation the characteristic surfaces are null surfaces. An alternative version of the initial value problem may be formulated using null surfaces; the initial value data needed differs from that of the standard Cauchy problem, and in the case we here discuss the values of separate components of the spinor function on an intersecting pair of null surfaces comprise the necessary initial value data. We present an expression for the construction of a solution from null surface data; two analogues of the quantum mechanical Hamiltonian operator determine the evolution of the system.

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Cites work

• Boundary values as Hamiltonian variables. I. New Poisson brackets
• Hamiltonian formalism for nonlocal Lagrangians
• On the equivalence of two super Korteweg–deVries theories: A bi-Hamiltonian viewpoint

Cited in

(3)

• Klein-Gordon potential in characteristic coordinates
• Integral formula for the characteristic Cauchy problem on a curved background
• Spin coefficients for four-dimensional neutral metrics, and null geometry

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