Rarita-Schwinger particles in homogeneous magnetic fields, and inconsistencies of spin-3/2 theories

Journal Article · Tue Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 1975 · Phys. Rev., D, v. 12, no. 2, pp. 458-466

OSTI ID:4171955

Seetharaman, M; Prabhakaran, J; Mathews, P M

The Rarita-Schwinger equation for a spin-3/2 particle with minimal electromagnetic coupling is solved completely in the case when a constant homogeneous external magnetic field H is present. It is shown that the spectrum of energy eigenvalues includes complex values if H is such that eta equivalent (2eH/3m$sup 2$) > 1, and further that the norm of the Rarita-Schwinger wave function (i.e., the total ''charge'' integral defined from the Lagrangian) which is positive definite for eta < 1 becomes indefinite (even after taking account of the constraints) when eta exceeds unity. These results confirm that the difficulties in quantization first discovered by Johnson and Sudarshan are a reflection of the indefiniteness of the norm which appears already at the c- number level, and suggest that the nature of the energy spectrum (whether or not complex values are present) in the presence of very large magnetic fields would provide a quick means of predicting whether such difficulties would arise in quantization.

• Research Organization: Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Madras, Madras- 600025, India
• NSA Number: NSA-33-004551
• OSTI ID: 4171955
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev., D, v. 12, no. 2, pp. 458-466, Journal Name: Phys. Rev., D, v. 12, no. 2, pp. 458-466; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

*RARITA-SCHWINGER THEORY-- MAGNETIC FIELDS
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MAGNETIC MOMENTS
N76100* --Physics (Theoretical)--General
WAVE FUNCTIONS