# Do spinors still do "funky" weird stuff in 1+1 spacetime?

Gold Member
Apparently we still need spinors for the Dirac equation in 1+1 dimensional space-time. Do spinors still do "funky" weird stuff in 1+1 dimensional space-time?

Thanks for any help!

stevendaryl
Staff Emeritus
Apparently we still need spinors for the Dirac equation in 1+1 dimensional space-time. Do spinors still do "funky" weird stuff in 1+1 dimensional space-time?

Thanks for any help!

Different authors use slightly different definitions for "funky weird stuff". Which definition are you using?

Khashishi
What is "funky" weird stuff? Spin is quantized angular momentum. I'm not sure how you can have angular momentum in one spatial dimension.

Gold Member
What is "funky" weird stuff? Spin is quantized angular momentum. I'm not sure how you can have angular momentum in one spatial dimension.

Why does the Dirac equation in 1+1 dimensions use 2 component spinors but more important what do the 2 compontents ? See the link below for a good paper on the Dirac equation in 1+1 d.

http://academic.reed.edu/physics/faculty/wheeler/documents/Classical Field Theory/Miscellaneous Essays/A. 2D Dirac Equation.pdf
Different authors use slightly different definitions for "funky weird stuff". Which definition are you using?

Maybe spinors only do "funky" weird stuff in 3+1 spacetime? Funky, like a 4pi rotation is the same as no rotation. Why do we need spinors in 1+1d spacetime and do they have any interesting transformation properties?

See link below for a nice paper on the Dirac equation in 1+1d spacetime.

http://academic.reed.edu/physics/faculty/wheeler/documents/Classical Field Theory/Miscellaneous Essays/A. 2D Dirac Equation.pdf

stevendaryl
Staff Emeritus