Related papers: Spin and helicity of massive particles
We study the physics of the ideal relativistic rotating gas at thermodynamical equilibrium and provide analytical expressions of the momentum spectra and polarization vector for the case of massive particles with spin 1/2 and 1. We show…
In this note, we first obtain the decomposition of the non-relativistic field velocity into the classical part (i.e., the velocity w=p/m OF the center-of-mass (CM), and the so-called quantum part (i.e., the velocity V of the motion IN the…
In 1905, Einstein formulated his special relativity for point particles. For those particles, his Lorentz covariance and energy-momentum relation are by now firmly established. How about the hydrogen atom? It is possible to perform Lorentz…
Using the Berezin-Marinov pseudoclassical formulation of spin particle we propose a classical model of spin noncommutativity. In the nonrelativistic case, the Poisson brackets between the coordinates are proportional to the spin angular…
We present a model-independent argument showing that massless particles interacting with gravity in a Minkowski background space can have at most spin two. This result is proven by extending a famous theorem due to Weinberg and Witten to…
The principal series of unitary representations of the Lorentz group has been considered in the helicity basis. Decompositions of tensor products of the spinspaces are studied in the framework of projective representations of the symmetric…
Neutrino oscillation experiments presently suggest that neutrinos have a small but finite mass. If neutrinos are to have mass, there should be a Lorentz frame in which they can be brought to rest. This paper discusses how Wigner's little…
We study a theory where the presence of an extra spin-two field coupled to gravity gives rise to a phase with spontaneously broken Lorentz symmetry. In this phase gravity is massive, and the Weak Equivalence Principle is respected. The…
We prove the equivalence between two traditional approaches to the classical mechanics of a massive spinning particle in special relativity. One is the spherical top model of Hanson and Regge, recast in a Hamiltonian formulation with…
An helicity formalism for perturbative calculations is presented. It is based on the formal insertion in spinor lines of a complete set of states built up with unphysical spinors. It is particularly convenient when massive spinors are…
We derive the collision term in the Boltzmann equation using the equation of motion for the Wigner function of massive spin-1/2 particles. To next-to-lowest order in $\hbar$ it contains a nonlocal contribution, which is responsible for the…
Helicity is a fundamental property of Dirac fermions. Yet, the general rule of how it changes in transport is still lacking. We uncover, theoretically, the universal spinor state transformation and consequently helicity redistribution rule…
The covariant motion of a classical point particle with magnetic moment in the presence of (external) electromagnetic fields is revisited. We are interested in understanding Lorentz force extension involving point particle magnetic moment…
We analyze idealized sequential Stern-Gerlach experiments with higher spin particles. This analysis serves at least two purposes: The widely discussed spin-1/2 case leads to some misunderstandings which hopefully is removed by the higher…
A reexamination of the semiclassical approach of the relativistic electron indicates a possible variation of its helicity for electric and magnetic static fields applied along its global motion due to zitterbewegung effects, proportional to…
Exploiting the azimuthal angle dependence of the density matrices we construct observables that directly measure the spin of a heavy unstable particle. A novelty of the approach is that the analysis of the azimuthal angle dependence in a…
We discuss relations between several relativistic spin observables and derive a Lorentz-invariant characteristic of a reduced spin density matrix.A relativistic position operator that satisfies all the properties of its nonrelativistic…
We study helicity correlations of electron-positron pairs created by a homogeneous time-dependent electric field in the Sauter-Schwinger scenario. Our analysis is based on solving the Dirac equation with the Feynman or anti-Feynman boundary…
In the first part (Sections 1 and 2) of this paper --starting from the Pauli current, in the ordinary tensorial language-- we obtain the decomposition of the non-relativistic field velocity into two orthogonal parts: (i) the "classical…
The classical motion of spinning particles can be described without employing Grassmann variables or Clifford algebras, but simply by generalizing the usual spinless theory. We only assume the invariance with respect to the Poincare' group;…