Abstract
Publisher Summary The relativistic wave equation for the electron, which is called the Dirac equation, is useful for describing scattering processes at high energy. For high-energy scattering processes in which particles are created and destroyed, the field describing the interaction of particles must be treated quantum mechanically. Also, to provide a correct description of relativistic particles, the Dirac equation must have free particle solutions that satisfy the correct energy-momentum relation, and it must be possible to define a probability density and a current satisfying a continuity equation This leads to a new kind of theory called quantum field theory, which is based on the ideas of relativity and quantum mechanics. Four-vectors are defined representing the velocity and the momentum of a particle. The energy and the momentum of a particle are found to be related by the equation E2 = p2c2 + m2c4. The same kind of argument that led to the Scrodinger equation is found to lead to relativistic wave equations.
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