Ebook: Spinors in Physics

Invented by Dirac in creating his relativistic quantum theory of the electron, spinors are important in quantum theory, relativity, nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, and condensed matter physics. Essentially, they are the mathematical entities that correspond to electrons in the same way that ordinary wave functions correspond to classical particles (including photons). Because of their relations to the rotation group SO(n) and the unitary group SU(n), the discussion should be of interest to applied mathematicians as well as physicists.

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Invented by Dirac in creating his relativistic quantum theory of the electron, spinors are important in quantum theory, relativity, nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, and condensed matter physics. Essentially, they are the mathematical entities that correspond to electrons in the same way that ordinary wave functions correspond to classical particles (including photons). Because of their relations to the rotation group SO(n) and the unitary group SU(n), the discussion should be of interest to applied mathematicians as well as physicists.

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Invented by Dirac in creating his relativistic quantum theory of the electron, spinors are important in quantum theory, relativity, nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, and condensed matter physics. Essentially, they are the mathematical entities that correspond to electrons in the same way that ordinary wave functions correspond to classical particles (including photons). Because of their relations to the rotation group SO(n) and the unitary group SU(n), the discussion should be of interest to applied mathematicians as well as physicists.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Two-Component Spinor Geometry....Pages 3-33
Spinors and SU(2) Group Representations....Pages 35-65
Spinor Representation of SO(3)....Pages 67-97
Pauli Spinors....Pages 99-117
Front Matter....Pages 119-119
The Lorentz Group....Pages 121-134
Representations of the Lorentz Groups....Pages 135-155
Dirac Spinors....Pages 157-169
Clifford and Lie Algebras....Pages 171-195
Back Matter....Pages 197-226

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Invented by Dirac in creating his relativistic quantum theory of the electron, spinors are important in quantum theory, relativity, nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, and condensed matter physics. Essentially, they are the mathematical entities that correspond to electrons in the same way that ordinary wave functions correspond to classical particles (including photons). Because of their relations to the rotation group SO(n) and the unitary group SU(n), the discussion should be of interest to applied mathematicians as well as physicists.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Two-Component Spinor Geometry....Pages 3-33
Spinors and SU(2) Group Representations....Pages 35-65
Spinor Representation of SO(3)....Pages 67-97
Pauli Spinors....Pages 99-117
Front Matter....Pages 119-119
The Lorentz Group....Pages 121-134
Representations of the Lorentz Groups....Pages 135-155
Dirac Spinors....Pages 157-169
Clifford and Lie Algebras....Pages 171-195
Back Matter....Pages 197-226
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