The Dirac equation

Book · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5638592

Thaller, B

This monograph treats most of the usual material to be found in texts on the Dirac equation such as the basic formalism of quantum mechanics, representations of Dirac matrices, covariant realization of the Dirac equation, interpretation of negative energies, Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation, Klein's paradox, spherically symmetric interactions and a treatment of the relativistic hydrogen atom, etc., and also provides excellent additional treatments of a variety of other relevant topics. The monograph contains an extensive treatment of the Lorentz and Poincare groups and their representations. The author discusses in depth Lie algebaic and projective representations, covering groups, and Mackey's theory and Wigner's realization of induced representations. A careful classification of external fields with respect to their behavior under Poincare transformations is supplemented by a basic account of self-adjointness and spectral properties of Dirac operators. A state-of-the-art treatment of relativistic scattering theory based on a time-dependent approach originally due to Enss is presented. An excellent introduction to quantum electrodynamics in external fields is provided. Various appendices containing further details, notes on each chapter commenting on the history involved and referring to original research papers and further developments in the literature, and a bibliography covering all relevant monographs and over 500 articles on the subject, complete this text. This book should satisfy the needs of a wide audience, ranging from graduate students in theoretical physics and mathematics to researchers interested in mathematical physics.

• OSTI ID: 5638592
• Resource Relation: Other Information: From review by F. Gesztesy, Univ. of Missouri, Foundations of Physics, Vol. 23, No. 7 (1993)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DIRAC EQUATION
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
REVIEWS
DIRAC OPERATORS
FOLDY-WOUTHUYSEN TRANSFORM
KORTEWEG-DE VRIES EQUATION
LIE GROUPS
POINCARE GROUPS
QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SCATTERING
CANONICAL TRANSFORMATIONS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELECTRODYNAMICS
EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
MECHANICS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUANTUM OPERATORS
SYMMETRY GROUPS
TRANSFORMATIONS
WAVE EQUATIONS
662200* - Specific Theories & Interaction Models
Particle Systematics- (1992-)
661100 - Classical & Quantum Mechanics- (1992-)