Question of Unitarity of Foldy-Wouthuysen Transformations and Volkov States in Two-Component Forms
- 19 February 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 42 (8) , 483-486
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.42.483
Abstract
The Foldy-Wouthuysen transformations are not always unitary within the space of solutions of the Dirac equation with boundary conditions. Therefore, imprecise nonrelativistic limits can be obtained for particular interactions if these transformations are always used. This assertion is confirmed by considering the case of plane electromagnetic waves and by comparing with the result given by an exact (closed-form) unitary transformation.Keywords
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