TransWikia.com

Vector potential of a Fermion

Physics Asked by Douglas Palmer on February 9, 2021

Has anyone seen a 3D arrow field plot of the vector potential of a charged Fermion such as an electron? Clearly you would have the contributions of the charge and of the spin magnetic moment. I imagine it would look like some kind of spiral structure. Thanks.

One Answer

The vector potential can't be that complicated. There are 2 vectors making up the problem:

1: The position vector $bf r$

2: The spin axial vector ${bf S} = frac{hbar} 2{bf sigma}$

From those, you need to construct a vector:

$$ {bf A} = a(r){bf r} + b(r){bf S} + c(r)({bf r times} {bf S}) $$

where the coefficients can be functions of position through $r= ||{bf r}||$.

The vector potential is odd under time reversal, so $a(r)=0$, as position is even.

As a vector, it is parity odd, so $b(r)=0$.

The final term is the cross product of a vector and an axial vector, so it's parity odd. It is also time odd, since ${bf S}$ is.

Hence:

$$ {bf A} = c(r)({bf r} times {bf S}) $$

describes the structure.

The field cannot be too complicated, as it is a dipole field, so it must have the same symmetries as a dipole. It is:

$$ {bf A} = frac{mu_0}{4pi} frac{{bf m} times {bf r}}{r^3} $$

with:

$$ {bf m} = -gfrac{ehbar}{4m_ec}{bf sigma}$$

Answered by JEB on February 9, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP