Relativistic Quantum Dynamics of Twisted Electron Beams in Arbitrary Electric and Magnetic Fields

2018/03/31 by Alexander J. Silenko, Pengming Zhang, Liping Zou · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Angular momentum #Angular momentum coupling #Azimuthal quantum number #Classical mechanics #Dirac equation #Electric field #Electron #Hamiltonian (control theory) #Magnetic field #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Physics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Relativistic particle #Total angular momentum quantum number #Zitterbewegung #hep-th #physics.class-ph #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.043202

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 043202 (2018) · 18 pages, with supplemental material

openalex publication_date 2018/07/27 · arxiv created 2019/02/19 · arxiv updated 2019/02/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Relativistic quantum dynamics of twisted (vortex) Dirac particles in arbitrary electric and magnetic fields are constructed for the first time. This allows us to change the controversial contemporary situation when the nonrelativistic approximation is used for relativistic twisted electrons. The relativistic Hamiltonian and equations of motion in the Foldy-Wouthuysen representation are derived. A critical experiment for a verification of the results obtained is proposed. The new important effect of a radiative orbital polarization of a twisted electron beam in a magnetic field resulting in a nonzero average projection of the intrinsic orbital angular momentum on the field direction is predicted.

Citations

• Elastic Scattering of Electron Vortex Beams in Magnetic Matter
• Spin precession of a particle with an electric dipole moment: contributions from classical electrodynamics and from the Thomas effect
• Spatio-temporal vortex beams and angular momentum
• Diagonal representation for a generic matrix valued quantum Hamiltonian
• Topological spin transport of a relativistic electron
• On the Hamiltonian nature of semiclassical equations of motion in the presence of an electromagnetic field and Berry curvature
• On the Dirac Theory of Spin 1/2 Particles and Its Non-Relativistic Limit

Cited by

• Vortex particles in axially symmetric fields and applications of the quantum Busch theorem
• Siberian Snake-Like Behavior for an Orbital Polarization of a Beam of Twisted (Vortex) Electrons