2004/09/14 by Bernd Thaller, Thaller, Bernd · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0409079
7 pages, 11 figures, movies at http://vqm.uni-graz.at/articles/dirac1/movies.html
arxiv created 2004/09/14 · openalex publication_date 2004/09/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This article investigates some solutions of the time-dependent free Dirac equation. Visualizations of these solutions immediately reveal strange phenomena that are caused by the interference of positive- and negative-energy waves. The effects discussed here include the Zitterbewegung, the opposite direction of momentum and velocity in negative-energy wave packets, and the superluminal propagation of the wave packet's local maxima.