Dirac Equation Research Articles

Can quantum statistics help distinguish Dirac from Majorana neutrinos?

Finding out if neutrinos are Dirac or Majorana particles is known to be extremely difficult due to the smallness of neutrino mass and the fact that in the limit mν = 0 both Dirac and Majorana neutrinos become Weyl fermions, i.e. are indistinguishable. There have been suggestions in the literature that in the case of processes with production of a neutrino-antineutrino pair (if neutrinos are Dirac particles) or two neutrinos (if they are of Majorana nature) quantum statistics may be of help. This is because for Majorana neutrinos quantum indistinguishability of identical particles requires the amplitude of the process to be antisymmetrized with respect to the interchange of the final-state neutrinos, whereas no such antisymmetrization must be done for Dirac neutrinos. It has been claimed that the resulting differences between the cross sections for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos persist even for arbitrarily small but not exactly vanishing neutrino mass. We demonstrate that, at least in the framework of the Standard Model, this is not the case. We also give a general proof that within the Standard Model quantum statistics does not help tell Dirac and Majorana neutrinos apart in the limit of negligibly small mν/E.

The Dirac equation as a linear tensor equation for one component

The Dirac equation is one of the most fundamental equations of modern physics. It is a spinor equation, but some tensor equivalents of the equation were proposed previously. Those equivalents were either nonlinear or involved several components of the Dirac field. On the other hand, the author showed previously that the Dirac equation in electromagnetic field is equivalent to a fourth-order equation for one component of the Dirac spinor. The equivalency is used in this work to derive a linear tensor equivalent of the Dirac equation for just one component. This surprising result can be used in applications of the Dirac equation, for example, in general relativity or for lattice approximation of the Dirac field, and can improve our understanding of the Dirac equation.

Integrability of Dirac equations in static spherical space-times

We consider the Dirac equations in static spherically-symmetric space-times, and we present a type of spinor field whose structure allows the separation of elevation angle and radial coordinate in very general situations. We demonstrate that after such a separation of variables the Dirac equations reduce to two equations that can always be integrated, at least in principle. To prove that ours is a fully-working method, we find an explicit exact solution in the special case of the de Sitter universe.

Nanophotonic route to control electron behaviors in 2D materials

Abstract Two-dimensional (2D) Dirac materials, e.g., graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are one-atom-thick monolayers whose electronic behaviors are described by the Dirac equation. These materials serve not only as test beds for novel quantum physics but also as promising constituents for nanophotonic devices. This review provides a brief overview of the recent effort to control Dirac electron behaviors using nanophotonics. We introduce a principle of light-2D Dirac matter interaction to offer a design guide for 2D Dirac material–based nanophotonic devices. We also discuss opportunities for coupling nanophotonics with externally perturbed 2D materials.

Quark and lepton modular models from the binary dihedral flavor symmetry

Inspired by the structure of top-down derived models endowed with modular flavor symmetries, we investigate the yet phenomenologically unexplored binary dihedral group 2D3. After building the vector-valued modular forms in the representations of 2D3 with small modular weights, we systematically classify all (Dirac and Majorana) mass textures of fermions with fractional modular weights and all possible 2 + 1-family structures. This allows us to explore the parameter space of fermion models based on 2D3, aiming at a description of both quarks and leptons with a minimal number of parameters and best compatibility with observed data. We consider the separate possibilities of neutrino masses generated by either a type-I seesaw mechanism or the Weinberg operator. We identify a model that, besides fitting all known flavor observables, delivers predictions for six not-yet measured parameters and favors normal-ordered neutrino masses generated by the Weinberg operator. It would be interesting to figure out whether it is possible to embed our model within a top-down scheme, such as \\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathbb{T}}^{2}/{\\mathbb{Z}}_{4}$$\\end{document} heterotic orbifold compactifications.

Thermodynamic properties of an interacting fermion-antifermion pair in a magnetized spacetime with a non-zero cosmological constant

Abstract In a magnetized three-dimensional Bonnor-Melvin spacetime with non-zero cosmological constant, we explore the
dynamics of a fermion-antifermion pair interacting through an attractive Coulomb potential. To analyze the relativistic
behavior, we seek an analytical solution for the fully covariant two-body Dirac equation derived from quantum electrody-
namics. The resulting equation provides a non-perturbative second-order wave equation that govers the relative motion of
the interacting pair. Remarkably, we find exact solubility when considering the interaction as short-range. Consequently,
we determine the energy eigenvalues and wave functions utilizing well-known special functions. By employing these
solutions, we determine the thermal properties of this system. Despite the divergence observed in the partition function,
we effectively tackle this issue by applying a regularization technique based on the mathematical zeta Hurwitz function.
This method facilitates the computation of various thermal quantities, such as free energy, total energy, entropy function,
and specific heat. Consequently, we provide an in-depth analysis of the thermodynamic characteristics of the system
under consideration.

Foldy–Wouthuysen transformation of Dirac equation in the context of Magueijo–Smolin model of the doubly special relativity

In this paper, in the context of the Magueijo–Smolin (MS) model and using the Foldy–Wouthuysen transformation for relativistic spin-1/2 particles, we study the nonrelativistic limit (NRL) of the Dirac equation within the doubly special relativity. This leads to obtaining a deformed Schrödinger–Pauli equation; there, we test the influence of the MS model on the NRL of the Dirac equation. However, we also examine the efficacy and behavior of the Foldy–Wouthuysen transformation in deriving the NRL in the presence of MS model. Besides, we compute that the energies shift in the context of MS model and check if the deformed Schrödinger–Pauli equation form still shows explicitly the g-factor 2.

Persistent currents of ultrarelativistic plasma-encased endofullerene molecules entrapping a H atom

In this work, for the first time in the relevant literature, the persistent currents (PC) and induced magnetic fields (IMF) of an endofullerene molecule entrapping a hydrogen atom, under spherical confinement, are investigated. The endofullerene molecule is enclosed within a spherical region and embedded in a plasma environment. The plasma environment is depicted with the more general exponential cosine screened Coulomb potential, and its relevant effects are analyzed by considering plasma screening parameters. The relevant model for endohedral confinement is the Woods–Saxon confinement potential, which is compatible with experimental data. The effects of various forms of C n are thoroughly elucidated via the analysis of the confinement depth, spherical shell thickness, the inner radius, and the smoothing parameters. To find the bound states in the spherically confined endofullerene, the decoupling of the second-order Dirac equation for the large and small components of the radial atomic wave functions is considered. The Dirac equation with the interaction potential is solved numerically by using the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method via the decoupling formalism. The influence of spin orientations on the PC and IMF is also elucidated. The effects of spherical confinement, plasma shielding, and the structural properties of the fullerene on the PC and IMF are thoroughly viewed. Moreover, under given physical conditions, the optimal ranges of these effects are determined.

Zero modes of massive fermions delocalize from axion strings

Massless chiral excitations can arise from the interactions between a fermion and an axion string, propagating along the string and allowing it to superconduct. The properties of these excitations, or zero modes, dictate how the string interacts with light and can thus have important phenomenological consequences. In this paper, we add a nowhere-vanishing Dirac mass for the fermion in the usual model of axion electrodynamics. We find that the zero modes exhibit an interesting phase structure in which they delocalize from the string’s core as the mass increases, up until a critical value past which they disappear. We study this structure from an analytic perspective, with explicit numerical solutions, and via anomaly inflow arguments. Finally, we derive the two-dimensional effective theory of the zero mode and its interactions with the four-dimensional gauge field and show how this effective theory breaks down as the zero modes delocalize.

Effects of periodically kicked Dirac mass term in the Chern insulators

Effects of periodically kicked Dirac mass term in the Chern insulators

Nonrelativistic limits of the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations in the Amelino-Camelia DSR

This paper is devoted to the study of the nonrelativistic limit of Amelino-Camelia doubly special relativity and the corresponding modified Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations. We show that these equations reduce to the Schrödinger equations for the particle and the antiparticle with different inertial masses, however, their rest masses are the same. M. Coraddu and S. Mignemi have studied the nonrelativistic limit of the Magueijo-Smolin doubly special relativity. We compare their results with our study and show that these two models are reciprocal to each other in the nonrelativistic limit. We find that particle and antiparticle masses can be different. These different masses lead to the CPT violation. Also, we will find an upper limit on the photon mass.

Exact Massless Spinor Quasibound States of Schwarzschild Black Hole

In this work, we investigate the behaviour of massless spin 12 field by working out the Dirac equation in a curved static spherically symmetric Schwarzschild space-time. Detailed derivation of novel exact massive and massless scalar quasibound state in Schwarzschild black hole background is presented in this work. After decoupling the Dirac equation, we successfully solve both of the angular and radial parts, respectively in terms of spin weighted Spherical Harmonics and Confluent Heun functions. With the exact radial wave solution in hand, applying its polynomial condition leads to the discovery of the the quantized energy levels expression. We found that the massless spinor field around the Schwarzschild black hole has complex valued energy levels, in contrast to the purely imaginary for a massless boson around the same black hole. In the last section, the Hawking radiation distribution function is derived via Damour-Ruffini method and the Hawking temperature is obtained.

Fermionic condensate and the vacuum energy-momentum tensor for planar fermions in homogeneous electric and magnetic fields

We consider a massive fermionic quantum field localized on a plane in external constant and homogeneous electric and magnetic fields. The magnetic field is perpendicular to the plane and the electric field is parallel. The complete set of solutions to the Dirac equation is presented. As important physical characteristics of the vacuum state, the fermion condensate and the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor are investigated. The renormalization is performed using the Hurwitz function. The results are compared with those previously studied in the case of zero electric field. We discuss the behavior of the vacuum expectation values in different regions for the values of the problem parameters. Applications of the results include the electronic subsystem of graphene sheet described by the Dirac model in the long-wavelength approximation.

Controllable quantum scars induced by spin–orbit couplings in quantum dots

Spin–orbit couplings (SOCs), originating from the relativistic corrections in the Dirac equation, offer nonlinearity in the classical limit and are capable of driving chaotic dynamics. In a nanoscale quantum dot confined by a two-dimensional parabolic potential with SOCs, various quantum scar states emerge quasi-periodically in the eigenstates of the system, when the ratio of confinement energies in the two directions is nearly commensurable. The scars, displaying both quantum interference and classical trajectory features on the electron density, due to relativistic effects, serve as a bridge between the classical and quantum behaviors of the system. When the strengths of Rashba and Dresselhaus SOCs are identical, the chaos in the classical limit is eliminated as the classical Hamilton’s equations become linear, leading to the disappearance of all quantum scar states. Importantly, the quantum scars induced by SOCs are robust against small perturbations of system parameters. With precise control achievable through external gating, the quantum scar induced by Rashba SOC is fully controllable and detectable.

Investigation of bound state energy spectra for fermionic particles in the presence of ultra generalized exponential hyperbolic potential model

By considering the ultra generalized exponential hyperbolic potential, which covers many potential types, the solutions of the Dirac equation with spin/pseudo-spin symmetric limits are achieved. In both approaches, the relation giving the bound state energy eigenvalues is obtained in a closed form. By using these relations, the energy values are calculated numerically for both symmetry cases via the software program. In addition, it has been identified how the bound state energy eigenvalues depend on the parameters. Besides, the energy equations for the Schrödinger and Klein–Gordon particles in the limit states are derived.

VAMPyR-A high-level Python library for mathematical operations in a multiwavelet representation.

Wavelets and multiwavelets have lately been adopted in quantum chemistry to overcome challenges presented by the two main families of basis sets: Gaussian atomic orbitals and plane waves. In addition to their numerical advantages (high precision, locality, fast algorithms for operator application, linear scaling with respect to system size, to mention a few), they provide a framework that narrows the gap between the theoretical formalism of the fundamental equations and the practical implementation in a working code. This realization led us to the development of the Python library called VAMPyR (Very Accurate Multiresolution Python Routines). VAMPyR encodes the binding to a C++ library for multiwavelet calculations (algebra and integral and differential operator application) and exposes the required functionality to write a simple Python code to solve, among others, the Hartree-Fock equations, the generalized Poisson equation, the Dirac equation, and the time-dependent Schrödinger equation up to any predefined precision. In this study, we will outline the main features of multiresolution analysis using multiwavelets and we will describe the design of the code. A few illustrative examples will show the code capabilities and its interoperability with other software platforms.

Approximate solutions of the spin and pseudospin symmetries under coshine Yukawa tensor interaction

The approximate solutions of the Dirac equation for spin symmetry and pseudospin symmetry are studied with a coshine Yukawa potential model via the traditional supersymmetric approach (SUSY). To remove the degeneracies in both the spin and pseudospin symmetries, a coshine Yukawa tensor potential is proposed and applied to both the spin symmetry and the pseudospin symmetry. The proposed coshine tensor potential removes the energy degenerate doublets in both the spin symmetry and pseudospin symmetry for a very small value of the tensor strength (H = 0.05). This shows that the coshine Yukawa tensor is more effective than the real Yukawa tensor. The non-relativistic limit of the spin symmetry is obtained by using certain transformations. The results obtained showed that the coshine Yukawa potential and the real Yukawa potential has the same variation with the angular momentum number but the variation of the screening parameter with the energy for the two potential models differs. However, the energy eigenvalues of the coshine Yukawa potential model, are more bounded compared to the energies of the real Yukawa potential model.

Magnetic flux-driven modulation of Weyl pair dynamics on catenoid bridge: A theoretical analysis

In this study, we examine the behavior of a Weyl pair influenced by magnetic flux on a catenoid bridge by obtaining analytical solutions of the corresponding fully covariant two-body Dirac equation. By deriving a non-perturbative wave equation governing their relative motion, we obtain a solution expressed in terms of the Confluent Heun function. Our findings indicate that the dynamics of this pair are influenced not only by the magnetic flux but also by the radius (ρ) of the catenoid bridge. We observe that the ground state energy of the Weyl pair can vary significantly, shifting from 0.258eV to 1.8 meV as the ρ value changes from 10nm to 1 μm. Furthermore, our results show that the Weyl pair’s behavior can resemble that of either a single fermion or boson, and intriguingly, this behavior can be modulated by adjusting the magnetic flux.

Massive Dirac particles based on gapped graphene with Rosen-Morse potential in a uniform magnetic field

Abstract In this paper, we explore the gapped graphene structure in the two-dimensional plane in the presence of the Rosen-Morse potential and the external uniform magnetic field. In order to describe the corresponding structure, we consider the propagation of electrons in graphene as relativistic fermion quasi-particles, and analyze it by the wave functions of two-component spinors with pseudo-spin symmetry using the Dirac equation. Next, to solve and analyze the Dirac equation, we obtain the eigenvalues and eigenvectors using the Legendre differential equation. After that, we obtain the bounded states of energy depending on the coefficients of Rosen-Morse and magnetic potentials in terms of quantum numbers of principal n and spin-orbit k. Then, the values of the energy spectrum for the ground state and the first excited state are calculated, and the wave functions and the corresponding probabilities are plotted in terms of coordinates r. In what follows, we explore the band structure of gapped graphene by the modified dispersion relation and write it in terms of the two-dimensional wave vectors K x and K y . Finally, the energy bands are plotted in terms of the wave vectors K x and K y with and without the magnetic term.

Boosting energy levels in graphene magnetic quantum dots through magnetic flux and inhomogeneous gap

We study the effects of a magnetic flux and an inhomogeneous gap on the energy spectrum of graphene magnetic quantum dots (GMQDs). By considering the Dirac equation in the infinite mass framework, we can analytically obtain eigenspinor expressions. By applying boundary conditions, we obtain an energy spectrum equation in terms of system parameters such as radius, magnetic field, energy, flux, and gap. In the infinite limit, we recover Landau levels for graphene in a magnetic field. We show that the energy spectrum increases significantly in the presence of flux and a gap inside the GMQDs, which prolongs the lifetime of the trapped electron states. We show that higher flux also produces new Landau levels of negative angular momentum. Meanwhile, we find that the gap increases the separation between the electron and hole energy bands. As shown in the radial probability analysis, flux and gap emerge as influential factors in controlling electron mobility, affecting confinement, and prolonging the presence of quasi-bound states.