Comments on the properties of one- and two-body double tensor operators

Abstract

Recently, the parity, charge, time and Hermitian conjugation properties of one-body tensor operators have been reexamined and the Racah algebra has been formally extended to two-body tensor operators. In this paper we consider several important aspects related to these problems. First, we present a proof of the communication relations for two-body operators which was previously postulated. Then, comparing the reduced matrix elements for one- and two-body operators we find the normalization constant for the latter. We subsequently show that the P- and T-conjugation relations for tensor operators are relativistically invariant. Finally, we analyze the question of Hermitian conjugation of double tensor operators and conclude that previously stated conditions on their ranks were too restrictive and resulted in omissions of some terms from theoretical analyses. We show examples of tensor operators which were customarily neglected but indeed should be retained in the effective Hamiltonian.