Related papers: Thomas--Wigner rotation as a holonomy for spin-$1/…
Wigner rotations are transformations that affect spinning particles and cause the observable phenomenon of Thomas precession. Here we study these rotations for arbitrary symmetry groups with a semi-direct product structure. In particular we…
We calculate the Wigner function for massive spin-1/2 particles in an inhomogeneous electromagnetic field to leading order in the Planck constant $\hbar$. Going beyond leading order in $\hbar$ we then derive a generalized Boltzmann equation…
It is well known that a sequence of two non-collinear pure Lorentz transformations (boosts) is not a boost again, but involves a spatial rotation, the Wigner or Thomas-Wigner rotation. The formation of this rotation is visually illustrated…
We derive the Boltzmann equation and the collision kernel for massive spin-1/2 particles, using the Wigner-function formalism and employing an expansion in powers of $\hbar$. The phase space is enlarged to include a variable related to the…
The Wigner rotation is a key word in many branches of physics, chemistry and engineering sciences. It is a group theoretical effect resulting from two Lorentz boosts. The net effect is one boost followed or preceded by a rotation. This…
We calculate the Wigner function for massive spin-1/2 particles in an inhomogeneous electromagnetic field to leading order in the Planck constant $\hbar$. Going beyond leading order in $\hbar$ we then derive a generalized Boltzmann equation…
The Wigner rotation of quantum particles with spin is one of the fascinating consequences of interplay between special relativity and quantum mechanics. In this paper we show that a direct experimental verification of Wigner's rotation is…
It is a well-known fact that helicity is a Lorentz-invariant for massless but not for massive particles. Nevertheless, a satisfactory proof of this fact and a detailed analysis on the relative orientation between spin and the momentum are…
We construct a matrix-valued spin-dependent distribution function (MVSD) for massive spin-1/2 fermions and study its properties under Lorentz transformations. Such transformations result in a Wigner rotation in spin space and in a…
A relativistic particle undergoing successive boosts which are non collinear will experience a rotation of its coordinate axes with respect to the boosted frame. This rotation of coordinate axes is caused by a relativistic phenomenon called…
The effect of a classical gravitational field on the spin entanglement of a system of two spin-1/2 particles moving in the curved spacetime is discussed. The system is described by a two-particle Gaussian wave packet represented in the…
We show that the explanation of Thomas-Wigner rotation (TWR) and Thomas precession (TP) in the framework of special theory of relativity (STR) contains a number of points of inconsistency, in particular, with respect to physical…
Semiclassical expansion of the Wigner function for spin-1/2 fermions having an effective spacetime-dependent mass is used to analyze spin-polarization effects. The existing framework is reformulated to obtain a differential equation…
Einstein's photo-electric effect allows us to regard electromagnetic waves as massless particles. Then, how is the photon helicity translated into the electric and magnetic fields perpendicular to the direction of propagation? This is an…
Hamilton in the course of his studies on quaternions came up with an elegant geometric picture for the group SU(2). In this picture the group elements are represented by ``turns'', which are equivalence classes of directed great circle arcs…
It is possible to associate two angles with two successive non-collinear Lorentz boosts. If one boost is applied after the initial boost, the result is the final boost preceded by a rotation called the Wigner rotation. The other rotation is…
Wigner's little groups are subgroups of the Lorentz group dictating the internal space-time symmetries of massive and massless particles. These little groups are like O(3) and E(2) for massive and massless particles respectively. While the…
We study the structure of maps that Lorentz boosts induce on the spin degree of freedom of a system consisting of two massive spin-$1/2$ particles. We consider the case where the spin state is described by the Werner state and the momenta…
The effect of the relativistic spin rotation, conditioned by the setting of the spin in the rest frame of a particle and by the noncommutativity of the Lorentz transformations along noncolinear directions, is discussed. In connection with…
In this paper we derive a fully relativistic kinetic theory for spin-1/2 particles and its coupling to Maxwell's equations, valid in the long scale-length limit, where the fields vary on a scale much longer than the localization of the…