Position, spin, and orbital angular momentum of a relativistic electron

Konstantin Y. Bliokh, Mark R. Dennis, Franco Nori

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    33 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Motivated by recent interest in relativistic electron vortex states, we revisit the spin and orbital angular momentum properties of Dirac electrons. These are uniquely determined by the choice of the position operator for a relativistic electron. We consider two main approaches discussed in the literature: (i) the projection of operators onto the positive-energy subspace, which removes the Zitterbewegung effects and correctly describes spin-orbit interaction effects, and (ii) the use of Newton-Wigner-Foldy-Wouthuysen operators based on the inverse Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation. We argue that the first approach [previously described in application to Dirac vortex beams in K. Y. Bliokh, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 174802 (2011)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.107.174802] has a more natural physical interpretation, including spin-orbit interactions and a nonsingular zero-mass limit, than the second one [S. M. Barnett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 114802 (2017)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.118.114802].

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number023622
    JournalPhysical Review A
    Volume96
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 28 Aug 2017

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