Linked Questions

1 vote
0 answers
82 views

Left-handed and right-handed helicity, can you explained well the phenomenon of chirality simply? [duplicate]

Chirality, helicity as a projection of its spin vector .. that becomes a kind of 'virtual spin'? I often confuse them: but the particles 'spin' on the right or left, or is the projection of .. what? ...
Peter Long's user avatar
43 votes
5 answers
25k views

What's the difference between helicity and chirality?

When a particle spins in the same direction as its momentum, it has right helicity, and left helicity otherwise. Neutrinos, however, have some kind of inherent helicity called chirality. But they can ...
Ryan Dickherber's user avatar
20 votes
3 answers
3k views

A thought experiment about neutrinos

I don't understand all the details of Dirac mass, Majorana mass, and many other "deep" notions. I have in mind a very simple thought experiment. Because of neutrino oscillations we know ...
Alfred's user avatar
  • 4,448
16 votes
4 answers
3k views

Is photon spin and polarization the same thing?

I have posted here regarding this before. I always get conflicting information when I research about this stuff. Some people say that a photon spins in or against it’s direction of motion…meaning if ...
theguineapigking's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
3k views

Transverse polarizations of a massless spin 1 particle

Physical polarization vectors are transverse, $p\cdot{\epsilon}=0$, where $p$ is the momentum of a photon and $\epsilon$ is a polarization vector. Physical polarization vectors are unchanged under a ...
nightmarish's user avatar
  • 3,243
1 vote
4 answers
693 views

What is the analog to the electric field for those particles (different to photon) that have a polarisation?

Photon has a polarisation. The polarisation defines how the two components of the electric field evolves with times in the transverse plane. Those particles, different to photon, that have a spin $s$ ...
Mathieu Krisztian's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

The electron and neutrino spin

Can you please clarify some basic notions about spin? Can you please explain what is intended when they say that the spin of a neutrino is left-handed and equal to -1/2? Does it mean its angular ...
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
866 views

Why is helicity important in quantum field theory?

What makes helicity an important quantity in quantum field theory? I know that one can classify particles by mass and spin. For particles without mass one uses helicity (correct me if this is wrong). ...
QuantumMechanic's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

What are the differences between chiral states and helical states in condensed matter physics?

As we know in particle physics, chirality corresponds to eigenvalues of the fifth gamma matrix, and helicity corresponds to the value of the projection of spin onto momentum. So in condensed matter ...
Jiang's user avatar
  • 91
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Difference between left- and right-handed, helicity and chirality

What is the difference? I know there is the (almost) same question What's the difference between helicity and chirality? but when a particle is given as left-handed. Is it helicity or chirality?
Ben's user avatar
  • 1,537
2 votes
1 answer
771 views

Weak interaction, parity violation, and the observer-dependence of helicity

It is said that the Weak Interaction only couples to left-handed particles which a negative spin (left-handed). However some sources say that spin or helicity is dependent on the observer's position ...
qubitz's user avatar
  • 364
1 vote
1 answer
426 views

How do massless particles have the same chirality and helicity when they are different properties?

I read this article about chirality and helicity. At some point it says For massless particles, chirality is the same as helicity. But as far as I know, helicity takes form in numbers, $(-1/2, +1/2)...
Jungwoon Song's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
444 views

Charged fermions have both chiralities, with the same mass. Shouldn’t neutrinos, also massive, have both chiralities, though with different masses?

Thanks to answers a previous question, I have realised the difference between helicity, a non-Lorentz-invariant quantity, and the Lorentz invariant chirality. Let me summarise what I understand, ...
Alfred's user avatar
  • 4,448
0 votes
0 answers
226 views

The helicity and spin conservation in the $e^+e^-\rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^-$ process

A related post was What is polarisation, spin, helicity, chirality and parity? In $m_\mu<<E$ region, $m_\mu$ could be treated as massless particles and the conservation of helicity indicated the ...
ShoutOutAndCalculate's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
50 views

What's the relation between the Lorenztz group and spin of particles?

I know that particles are defined in terms of irreducible representations of the Poincaré group, and that the state of a massive particle is defined by its mass and spin, which are the eigenvalues of ...
AlfredV's user avatar
  • 587