The Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation
Preprint
- 23 March 1995
Abstract
The Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation of the Dirac Hamiltonian is generally taught as simply a mathematical trick that allows one to obtain a two-component theory in the low-energy limit. It is not often emphasized that the transformed representation is the only one in which one can take a meaningful *classical limit*, in terms of particles and antiparticles. We briefly review the history and physics of this transformation.Keywords
All Related Versions
- Version 1, 1995-03-23, ArXiv
- Published version: American Journal of Physics, 63 (12), 1119.
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