Timeline for Classical Dirac equation
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
3 events
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| Apr 3, 2023 at 21:53 | comment | added | Elijah_Lew-Smith | I don't know the answer to OP's question, but this answer is not correct. 1) The path integral for QED is well defined in the limit of $\hbar \to 0$ which gives a classical Dirac field coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field. You can represent the spinor part as a current but it isn't necessary 2) The existence of spin 1/2 particles is relativistic but not quantum--it comes from the fact that that SO(3+1) has a $1/2 \otimes 1/2$ representation which shows up in the spin current (see Belinfante–Rosenfeld stress–energy tensor on Wikipedia). Parity is a well-defined classical symmetry, too. | |
| Jul 22, 2019 at 11:45 | comment | added | Rudyard | The Dirac field/equation is however used as a relativistic wave equation to describe a spin 1/2 particle for some applications: for example, fine structure of the energy levels in the hydrogen atom, scattering by black holes... So one can extract physics from it. | |
| Dec 1, 2017 at 9:34 | history | answered | DanielC | CC BY-SA 3.0 |