DIRAC SPINORS: PRODUCTS OF SPINORS

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Post date: 14 June 2018.
References: Amitabha Lahiri & P. B. Pal, A First Book of Quantum Field
Theory, Second Edition (Alpha Science International, 2004) - Chapter 4,
Problem 4.10.
The Dirac spinors satisfy the relations

/p − m us (p) = 0 (1)


/p + m vs (p) = 0 (2)


us (p) /p − m = 0 (3)


vs (p) /p + m = 0 (4)
where a barred spinor is defined by

ψ ≡ ψ †γ 0 (5)
Each spinor is a 4-component column vector, while the barred versions
are each a 4-component row vector. Therefore, if we form the product us us
we get a 4 × 4 matrix. If we sum over the two s indexes, we can prove the
identities

∑ us (p) us (p) = /p + m (6)

s

∑ vs (p) vs (p) = /p − m (7)

s

We can show this by applying both sides of each equation to each of the
four basis vectors us and vs , where s can be + or − in each case. For the
LHS, we can use the results

us (p) ur (p) = 2mδrs (8)

vs (p) vr (p) = −2mδrs (9)
For example (all spinors are functions of p):
1
 DIRAC SPINORS: PRODUCTS OF SPINORS 2

 
∑ usus u− = u+ u+ u− + u− u− u− (10)
s
= 0 + 2mu− (11)
= 2mu− (12)
The RHS is, using 1

/p + m u− = /p − m + 2m u− (13)


= /p − m u− + 2mu− (14)
= 2mu− (15)
Thus ∑s us (p) us (p) has the same effect on u− as /p +m. The same argument
works for u+ .
For v− , we can use the relation

ur (p) vs (p) = 0 (16)

Thus

∑ ususvs = 0 (17)
s
and from 2


/p + m vs (p) = 0 (18)
Thus 6 is true when both sides are applied to all four basis vectors.
The argument for 7 is essentially the same. For example, for the LHS:
 
∑ vsvs v− = v+ v+ v− + v− v− v− (19)
s
= 0 − 2mv− (20)
= −2mv− (21)
and for the RHS

/p − m v− = /p + m − 2m v− (22)
= −2mv− (23)
Since both sides of both equations 6 and 7 have the same effect on all four
basis vectors, the operators are equivalent.
 DIRAC SPINORS: PRODUCTS OF SPINORS 3

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