Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Theory
Scientific paper
1999-01-22
Annals Phys. 275 (1999) 297-313
Physics
High Energy Physics
High Energy Physics - Theory
16 pages, 3 EPS figures, REVTeX using BoxedEPS package; email to jaffe@mit.edu
Scientific paper
10.1006/aphy.1999.5935
We consider the dynamics of a relativistic Dirac particle constrained to move in the interior of a twisted tube by confining boundary conditions, in the approximation that the curvature of the tube is small and slowly varying. In contrast with the nonrelativistic theory, which predicts that a particle's spin does not change as the particle propagates along the tube, we find that the angular momentum eigenstates of a relativistic spin-1/2 particle may behave nontrivially. For example, a particle with its angular momentum initially polarized in the direction of propagation may acquire a nonzero component of angular momentum in the opposite direction on turning through 2 \pi radians. Also, the usual nonrelativistic effective potential acquires an additional factor in the relativistic theory.
Jaffe Richard L.
Mohta Vivek
Ouyang Peter
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