Hamiltonian Formulation and Action Principle for the Lorentz-Dirac System

The possibility of constructing a Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation is examined for a radiating point-like charge usually described by the classical Lorentz-Dirac equation. It turns out that the latter equation cannot be obtained from the variational principle, and, furthermore, has nonphysical solutions. It is proposed to consider a physically equivalent set of reduced equations which admit a Hamiltonian formulation with non-canonical Poisson brackets. As an example, the effective dynamics of a non-relativistic particle moving in a homogeneous magnetic field is considered. The proposed Hamiltonian formulation may be considered as a first step to a consistent quantization of the Lorentz-Dirac system.     

The Analysis of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Properties of the Classical Relativistic Electrodynamics Models and Their Quantization

The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian properties of classical electrodynamics models and their associated Dirac quantizations are studied. Using the vacuum field theory approach developed in (Prykarpatsky et al. Theor. Math. Phys. 160(2): 1079–1095, 2009 and The field structure of a vacuum, Maxwell equations and relativity theory aspects. Preprint ICTP) consistent canonical Hamiltonian reformulations of some alternative classical electrodynamics models are devised, and these formulations include the Lorentz condition in a natural way. The Dirac quantization procedure corresponding to the Hamiltonian formulations is developed. The crucial importance of the rest reference systems, with respect to which the dynamics of charged point particles is framed, is explained and emphasized. A concise expression for the Lorentz force is derived by suitably taking into account the duality of electromagnetic field and charged particle interactions. Finally, a physical explanation of the vacuum field medium and its relativistic properties fitting the mathematical framework developed is formulated and discussed.     

Singular Lagrangian for the polaron

A Lagrangian which describes the electron-phonon interaction is proposed, starting from a simple model of interacting string and charged particle. The Lagrangian is singular, containing both bosonic variables (i.e., phonons) and fermionic ones (i.e., the electron). Symmetry Dirac brackets are used to obtain the BCS Hamiltonian. The addition of a total derivative of a scalar function to the Lagrangian density doesnot alter the quantization procedure.     

Determination of the Electromagnetic Lagrangian from a System of Poisson Brackets

The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of electromagnetism are reviewed and the Maxwell equations are obtained from the Hamiltonian for a system of many electric charges. It is shown that three of the equations which were obtained from the Hamiltonian, namely the Lorentz force law and two Maxwell equations, can be obtained as well from a set of postulated Poisson brackets. It is shown how the results derived from these brackets can be used to reconstruct the original Lagrangian for the theory aided by some reasoning based on physical concepts.     

Dirac particle spin in strong gravitational fields

Dynamics of the Dirac particle spin in general strong gravitational fields is discussed. The Hermitian Dirac Hamiltonian is derived and transformed to the Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) representation for an arbitrary metric. The quantum mechanical equations of spin motion are found. These equations agree with corresponding classical ones. The new restriction on the anomalous gravitomagnetic moment (AGM) by the reinterpretation of Lorentz invariance tests is obtained.     

De Donder-Weyl theory and a hypercomplex extension of quantum mechanics to field theory

A quantization of field theory based on the De Donder-Weyl (DW) covariant Hamiltonian formulation is discussed. A hypercomplex extension of quantum mechanics, in which the space-time Clifford algebra replaces that of the complex numbers, appears as a result of quantization of Poisson brackets on differential forms which were put forward for the DW theory earlier. The proposed covariant hypercomplex Schrödinger equation is shown to lead in the classical limit to the DW Hamilton-Jacobi equation and to obey the Ehrenfest principle in the sense that the DW canonical field equations are satisfied for expectation values of properly chosen operators.     

Constrained dynamics of an anomalous (g≠2) relativistic spinning particle in electromagnetic background

In this paper we have considered the dynamics of an anomalous (g≠2) charged relativistic spinning particle in the presence of an external electromagnetic field. A constraint analysis is done and the complete set of Dirac brackets are provided that generate the canonical Lorentz algebra and dynamics through Hamiltonian equations of motion. The spin-induced effective curvature of spacetime and its possible connection with Analogue Gravity models are commented upon.     

有限空间中经典场的正则量子化

从离散的角度研究带边界的1+1维经典标量场和Dirac场的正则量子化问题. 与以往不同的是, 这里将时间和空间两个变量同时进行变步长的离散, 应用变步长离散的变分原理, 得到离散形式的运动方程、边界条件和能量守恒的表达式. 然后, 根据Dirac理论, 将边界条件当作初级约束, 将边界条件和内在约束统一处理. 研究表明, 采用此方法, 不仅在每个离散的时空格点上能够建立起Dirac括号, 从而可以完成该模型的正则量子化;而且, 该方法还保持了离散情况下的能量守恒.     

The motion of a classical spinning particle in a Riemann-Cartan space-time

A consistent set of equations of motion for classical charged particles with spin and magnetic dipole moment in a Riemann-Cartan space-time is generated from a constrained Lagrangian formalism. The equations avoid the spurious free helicoidal solutions and at the same time conserve the canonical condition of normalization of the 4-velocity. The 4-velocity and the mechanical moment are parallel in this theory, where the condition of orthogonality between spin and 4-velocity is treated as a nonholonomic constraint. A generalized BMT precession equation is obtained as one of the results of the formalism.     

The Klein-Gordon and the Dirac Oscillators in a Noncommutative Space

We study the Dirac and the Klein-Gordon oscillators in a noncommutative space. It is shown that the Klein-Gordon oscillator in a noncommutative space has a similar behaviour to the dynamics of a particle in a commutative space and in a constant magnetic field. The Dirac oscillator in a noncommutative space has a similar equation to the equation of motion for a relativistic fermion in a commutative space and in a magnetic field, however a new exotic term appears, which implies that a charged fermion in a noncommutative space has an electric dipole moment.     

The Klein-Gordon and the Dirac Oscillators in a Noncommutative Space

We study the Dirac and the Klein-Gordon oscillators in a noncommutative space. It is shown that the Klein-Gordon oscillator in a noncommutative space has a similar behaviour to the dynamics ofa particle in a commutative space and in a constant magnetic field. The Dirac oscillator in a noncommutative space has a similar equation to the equation of motion for a relativistic fermion in a commutative space and in a magnetic field, however a new exotic term appears, which implies that a charged fermion in a noncommutative space has an electric dipole moment.     

The Hamiltonian description of incompressible fluid ellipsoids

We construct the noncanonical Poisson bracket associated with the phase space of first order moments of the velocity field and quadratic moments of the density of a fluid with a free-boundary, constrained by the condition of incompressibility. Two methods are used to obtain the bracket, both based on Dirac’s procedure for incorporating constraints. First, the Poisson bracket of moments of the unconstrained Euler equations is used to construct a Dirac bracket, with Casimir invariants corresponding to volume preservation and incompressibility. Second, the Dirac procedure is applied directly to the continuum, noncanonical Poisson bracket that describes the compressible Euler equations, and the moment reduction is applied to this bracket. When the Hamiltonian can be expressed exactly in terms of these moments, a closure is achieved and the resulting finite-dimensional Hamiltonian system provides exact solutions of Euler’s equations. This is shown to be the case for the classical, incompressible Riemann ellipsoids, which have velocities that vary linearly with position and have constant density within an ellipsoidal boundary. The incompressible, noncanonical Poisson bracket differs from its counterpart for the compressible case in that it is not of Lie-Poisson form.     

Incomplete Dirac reduction of constrained Hamiltonian systems

First-class constraints constitute a potential obstacle to the computation of a Poisson bracket in Dirac’s theory of constrained Hamiltonian systems. Using the pseudoinverse instead of the inverse of the matrix defined by the Poisson brackets between the constraints, we show that a Dirac–Poisson bracket can be constructed, even if it corresponds to an incomplete reduction of the original Hamiltonian system. The uniqueness of Dirac brackets is discussed. The relevance of this procedure for infinite dimensional Hamiltonian systems is exemplified.     

Semiclassical approximation of the Dirac equation with supersymmetry

The general scheme of the successive construction of semiclassical approximation for the classical Dirac equation in a background Yang-Mills field, where the usual Dirac operator is replaced by that with supersymmetry, is suggested. The first two terms of the semiclassical expansion in Planck’s constant are derived in an explicit form. It is shown that supersymmetry of the initial Dirac operator leads to appearance of new additional terms in the classical equation of motion for spin of a particle and ipso facto requires appropriate modification for the Lagrangian of the spinning particle. The result obtained is used for the construction of one-to-one mapping between two Lagrangians of a classical color-charged spinning particle, one of which possesses local supersymmetry, and another doesn’t. It is demonstrated that for recovery of the one-to-oneness the additional terms obtained above in the semiclassical approximation of the Dirac operator with supersymmetry should be added to the Lagrangian without supersymmetry.     

Zitterbewegung in Quantum Mechanics

The possibility that zitterbewegung opens a window to particle substructure in quantum mechanics is explored by constructing a particle model with structural features inherent in the Dirac equation. This paper develops a self-contained dynamical model of the electron as a lightlike particle with helical zitterbewegung and electromagnetic interactions. The model admits periodic solutions with quantized energy, and the correct magnetic moment is generated by charge circulation. It attributes to the electron an electric dipole moment rotating with ultrahigh frequency, and the possibility of observing this directly as a resonance in electron channeling is analyzed in detail. Correspondence with the Dirac equation is discussed. A modification of the Dirac equation is suggested to incorporate the rotating dipole moment.     

On the relativistic classical motion of a radiating spinning particle in a magnetic field

We propose classical equations of motion for a charged particle with magnetic moment, taking radiation reaction into account. This generalizes the Landau–Lifshitz equations for the spinless case. In the special case of spin-polarized motion in a constant magnetic field (synchrotron motion) we verify that the particle does lose energy. Previous proposals did not predict dissipation of energy and also suffered from runaway solutions analogous to those of the Lorentz–Dirac equations of motion.     

The Supersymmetry and Eigen Energy Spectrum of a Charged Dirac Particle in a Uniform Constant Magnetic Field

Based on the opinion that the γ-matrices in Dirac equation have structure and are decomposable, we decompose the γ-matrices into the direct product of the operators in the spin space and the particle-antiparticle space. By using this method, we attain a complete set of commutative operators, a set of quantum numbers and the correspondingly eigen solutions of the Hamiltonian for a charged Dirac particle moving in a uniform constant magnetic field. In addition, the dynamic supersymmetry of the Hamiltonian is unveiled. Spin symmetry breaking and particle-antiparticle symmetry breaking are discussed, and the supersymmetric group operator of the degenerate spin subspace resulting from the spin residual supersymmetry is found.     

Generally covariant quantization and the Dirac field

Canonical Hamiltonian field theory in curved spacetime is formulated in a manifestly covariant way. Second quantization is achieved invoking a correspondence principle between the Poisson bracket of classical fields and the commutator of the corresponding quantum operators. The Dirac theory is investigated and it is shown that, in contrast to the case of bosonic fields, in curved spacetime, the field momentum does not coincide with the generators of spacetime translations. The reason is traced back to the presence of second class constraints occurring in Dirac theory. Further, it is shown that the modification of the Dirac Lagrangian by a surface term leads to a momentum transfer between the Dirac field and the gravitational background field, resulting in a theory that is free of constraints, but not manifestly hermitian.     

Boundary conditions as Dirac constraints

In this article we show that boundary conditions can be treated as Lagrangian and Hamiltonian constraints. Using the Dirac method, we find that boundary conditions are equivalent to an infinite chain of second class constraints, which is a new feature in the context of constrained systems. Constructing the Dirac brackets and the reduced phase space structure for different boundary conditions, we show why mode expanding and then quantizing a field theory with boundary conditions is the proper way. We also show that in a quantized field theory subjected to the mixed boundary conditions, the field components are non-commutative. Received: 16 October 2000 / Revised version: 8 January 2001 / Published online: 23 February 2001