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The Quantum Mechanical Current of the Pauli Equation

Physics Education 2009-10-31 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

We argue that the process of constructing the quantum mechanical current of the Pauli equation by copying the line of arguments used in the spin-0 case, i.e. the Schr\"{o}dinger equation, is ambiguous. We show that a non-relativistic reduction of the relativistic Dirac four-vector current is, however, capable of fully resolving the problem. This analysis reveals that the non-relativistic current of the Pauli equation should include an extra term of the form ×(ψσψ)\vec \nabla \vec \times (\psi^{\dagger} \vec \sigma \psi). We present an initial exploration of the potential consequences of this new 'spin-term' by solving the Pauli equation for crossed magnetic and electric fields and calculating the corresponding current.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/9807019,
  title  = {The Quantum Mechanical Current of the Pauli Equation},
  author = {Marek Nowakowski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/9807019},
  year   = {2009}
}

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8 pages, LATeX