TY - JOUR
T1 - Position, spin, and orbital angular momentum of a relativistic electron
AU - Bliokh, Konstantin Y.
AU - Dennis, Mark R.
AU - Nori, Franco
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.
PY - 2017/8/28
Y1 - 2017/8/28
N2 - 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].
AB - 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].
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028689437&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.96.023622
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevA.96.023622
M3 - Article
SN - 2469-9926
VL - 96
JO - Physical Review A
JF - Physical Review A
IS - 2
M1 - 023622
ER -