1997Journal of Physics A Mathematical and GeneralOpen access

Behaviour of wavepackets of the 'Dirac oscillator': Dirac representation versus Foldy - Wouthuysen representation

F. M. Toyama, Y. Nogami, Francisco Antônio Bezerra Coutinho

Open full text 55 citations

Abstract

The behaviour of wavepackets of the `Dirac oscillator' in (1 + 1) dimensions is examined. The Dirac oscillator is a relativistic extension of the harmonic oscillator. We construct a wavepacket in the usual Dirac representation and another one in the Foldy - Wouthuysen (FW) representation. In the nonrelativistic limit, these wavepackets are both reduced to Schrödinger's coherent wavepacket for the harmonic oscillator. The wavepacket in the Dirac representation exhibits Zitterbewegung whereas the one in the FW representation does not. We find that the wavepacket in the FW representation behaves much more like a classical particle than that of the Dirac representation. This gives insights into Ehrenfest's theorem for the Dirac equation.

Open-access reader

About this research paper

What this paper is about

The behaviour of wavepackets of the `Dirac oscillator' in (1 + 1) dimensions is examined. The Dirac oscillator is a relativistic extension of the harmonic oscillator. We construct a wavepacket in the usual Dirac representation and another one in the Foldy - Wouthuysen (FW) representation. In the nonrelativistic limit, these wavepackets are both reduced to Schrödinger's coherent wavepacket for the harmonic oscillator. The wavepacket in the Dirac representation exhibits Zitterbewegung whereas the one in the FW representation does not. We find that the wavepacket in the FW representation behaves much more like a classical particle than that of the Dirac representation. This gives insights into Ehrenfest's theorem for the Dirac equation.

Why it matters

OpenAlex reports 55 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

Key contribution

A contribution statement is not available in the OpenAlex record.

Method / approach

Method details are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Main findings

Findings are not separately available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Limitations

Limitations are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Applications

Application details are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Available abstract

The behaviour of wavepackets of the `Dirac oscillator' in (1 + 1) dimensions is examined. The Dirac oscillator is a relativistic extension of the harmonic oscillator. We construct a wavepacket in the usual Dirac representation and another one in the Foldy - Wouthuysen (FW) representation. In the nonrelativistic limit, these wavepackets are both reduced to Schrödinger's coherent wavepacket for the harmonic oscillator. The wavepacket in the Dirac representation exhibits Zitterbewegung whereas the one in the FW representation does not. We find that the wavepacket in the FW representation behaves much more like a classical particle than that of the Dirac representation. This gives insights into Ehrenfest's theorem for the Dirac equation.

Key concepts: Zitterbewegung, Wave packet, Dirac (video compression format), Harmonic oscillator, Dirac equation, Representation (politics), Dirac comb, Physics

Related papers

Back to paper searchBrowse research topicsOriginal source
Behaviour of wavepackets of the 'Dirac oscillator': Dirac representation versus Foldy - Wouthuysen representation — Research Paper | ScholarLens