2002/06/12 by Daniel Alonso, D. Alonso, R. Sala Mayato +2 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Arrival time #Dirac (video compression format) #Distribution (mathematics) #Electron #Mathematical analysis #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Physics #Propagator #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Statistical physics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.66.042108
published as Phys. Rev. A, 42108 Vol 66 (2002) · 12 pages, 7 figures, (revtex4)
arxiv created 2002/06/12 · openalex publication_date 2002/10/15 · arxiv updated 2011/11/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
For the special case of freely evolving Dirac electrons in (1+1) dimensions, Feynman checkerboard paths have previously been used to derive Wigner's arrival-time distribution which includes all arrivals. Here, an attempt is made to use these paths to determine the corresponding distribution of first-arrival times. Simple analytic expressions are obtained for the relevant components of the first-arrival propagator. These are used to investigate the relative importance of the first-arrival contribution to the Wigner arrival-time distribution and of the contribution arising from interference between first and later (i.e., second, third, etc.) arrivals. It is found that a distribution of (intrinsic) first-arrival times for a Dirac electron cannot in general be consistently defined using checkerboard paths, not even approximately in the nonrelativistic regime.