Abstract
First, we examine how spin is treated in special relativity and the necessity of introducing spin supplementary conditions (SSC) and how they are related to the choice of a center-of-mass of a spinning particle. Next, we discuss quantum electrodynamics and the Foldy–Wouthuysen transformation which we note is a position operator identical to the Pryce–Newton–Wigner position operator. The classical version of the operators are shown to be essential for the treatment of classical relativistic particles in general relativity, of special interest being the case of binary systems (black holes/neutron stars) which emit gravitational radiation.
Highlights
Rotation effects in relativistic systems involve many new concepts not needed in non-relativistic classical physics
Applications in quantum electrodynamics (QED) did not refer to position operators per se and no thought was given to the possibility that they had an important role to play in classical relativistic systems, as was first discovered by Barker and the present author
The NW-Pryce position operator (4), generally referred to as the NW position operator, which we initially identified in our two-body gravitational spin precession paper [24], is the operator of choice in all applications in QED [17] and classical general relativistic theory [22,23,24]
Summary
Rotation effects in relativistic systems involve many new concepts not needed in non-relativistic classical physics. Some of these are quantum mechanical (where the emphasis is on ‘spin’). Our emphasis will be on quantum electrodynamics (QED) and both special and general relativity. The classical version of these operators turn out to be essential in treating classical relativistic particles in general relativity, which is the subject of Section 4.
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