2016•arXiv (Cornell University)Open access

A Note on Time Operators in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

Sina Ataollah Khorasani

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Abstract

It is first shown that the Dirac's equation in a relativistic frame could be modified to allow discrete time, in agreement to a recently published upper bound. Next, an exact self-adjoint $4\times 4$ relativistic time operator for spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles is found and the time eigenstates for the non-relativistic case are obtained and discussed. Results confirm the quantum mechanical speculation that particles can indeed occupy negative energy levels with vanishingly small but non-zero probablity, contrary to the general expectation from classical physics. Hence, Wolfgang Pauli's objection regarding the existence of a self-adjoint time operator is fully resolved. It is shown that using the time operator, a bosonic field referred here to as energons may be created, whose number state representations in non-relativistic momentum space can be explicitly found.

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What this paper is about

It is first shown that the Dirac's equation in a relativistic frame could be modified to allow discrete time, in agreement to a recently published upper bound. Next, an exact self-adjoint $4\times 4$ relativistic time operator for spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles is found and the time eigenstates for the non-relativistic case are obtained and discussed. Results confirm the quantum mechanical speculation that particles can indeed occupy negative energy levels with vanishingly small but non-zero probablity, contrary to the general expectation from classical physics. Hence, Wolfgang Pauli's objection regarding the existence of a self-adjoint time operator is fully resolved. It is shown that using the time operator, a bosonic field referred here to as energons may be created, whose number state representations in non-relativistic momentum space can be explicitly found.

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Available abstract

It is first shown that the Dirac's equation in a relativistic frame could be modified to allow discrete time, in agreement to a recently published upper bound. Next, an exact self-adjoint $4\times 4$ relativistic time operator for spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles is found and the time eigenstates for the non-relativistic case are obtained and discussed. Results confirm the quantum mechanical speculation that particles can indeed occupy negative energy levels with vanishingly small but non-zero probablity, contrary to the general expectation from classical physics. Hence, Wolfgang Pauli's objection regarding the existence of a self-adjoint time operator is fully resolved. It is shown that using the time operator, a bosonic field referred here to as energons may be created, whose number state representations in non-relativistic momentum space can be explicitly found.

Key concepts: Relativistic quantum mechanics, Physics, Energy operator, Operator (biology), Quantum mechanics, Dirac equation, Mathematical physics, Pauli exclusion principle

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