Getting back Maxwell's vector equations from their spinor version

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TL;DR
Maxwell's em spinor equation in free space is partial^AA' phi_AB =.0. I.am trying to derive the corresponding vector equations.
partial^AA' phi_AB =.0.
I need some hints on how to find suitable components of phi_AB in terms the components of the electric and magnetic fields.
Thanks.
 
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grzz said:
TL;DR: Maxwell's em spinor equation in free space is partial^AA' phi_AB =.0. I.am trying to derive the corresponding vector equations.
Two requests: 1) can you please format your spinor equations using LaTeX (guiding information is at left below) and 2) cite the reference in which you find these equations. Thanks.
 
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possibly useful:

Electric and Magnetic fields in terms of Weyl spinors
Isak Fleig , Department of Physics, Lund University
Bachelor thesis
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/9196838

See also
Penrose & Rindler
Ch 5.1 The electromagnetic field and its derivative operator (p. 323: Relation to electric and magnetic 3-vectors)

Spinor representation of Maxwell’s equations
Kulyabov, Korolkova, Sevastianov
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 788 (2017) 012025
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/788/1/012025/pdf
 
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renormalize said:
Two requests: 1) can you please format your spinor equations using LaTeX (guiding information is at left below) and 2) cite the reference in which you find these equations. Thanks.
Thanks for your reply.
1. I am still learning how to use LaTeX.
2. An Introduction to Spinors" by W. L. Bade and Herbert Jehle, a foundational paper on spinor calculus published in 1953 in the Reviews of Modern Physics
 
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grzz said:
I need some hints on how to find suitable components of phi_AB in terms the components of the electric and magnetic fields.
Here is a accessible, open-source paper that addresses your question:
Spinor representation of Maxwell’s equations.
In particular, the authors show that the 3 components of the complex, symmetric electromagnetic field spinor ##\phi_{AB}## written in terms of the real componets of the electric-field ##\vec{E}\equiv\left(E_{1},E_{2},E_{3}\right)## and the magnetic-field ##\vec{B}\equiv\left(B_{1},B_{2},B_{3}\right)## are:$$\phi_{00}=-\frac{1}{2}\left(E_{1}+B_{2}-i\left(E_{2}-B_{1}\right)\right)$$$$\phi_{01}=\phi_{10}=-\frac{1}{2}\left(E_{3}+i\,B_{3}\right)$$$$\phi_{11}=\frac{1}{2}\left(E_{1}-B_{2}+i\left(E_{2}+B_{1}\right)\right)$$Note: edited to invert the sign of the magnetic-field contribution to ##\phi_{AB}## to agree with the conventions in the reference.
 
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I found the suggestion by Robphy, the KKS paper useful. It was also suggested by Renormalize. Thanks.
 
possibly helpful (for an abstract-index notation approach):
page 18 (and page 3 and onward for definitions) of
"Conserved currents of massless fields of spin s>0"
Stephen C. Anco, Juha Pohjanpelto
https://arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0202019
Proc.Roy.Soc.Lond. A459 (2003) 1215-1240
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2002.1070

p 3:
II. METHOD AND MAIN RESULTS

In four dimensional flat spacetime ##M=\left(R^4, \eta_{a b}\right)##, the spinor equations describing free massless spin ##s \geq 1 / 2## fields are given by
$$
\begin{equation*}
\partial_{A^{\prime}}^{A_1} \phi_{A_1 \cdots A_{2 s}}(x)=0, \tag{2.1}
\end{equation*}
$$
where ##\phi_{A_1 \cdots A_{2 s}}## is a symmetric spinor representing the spin ##s## field strength [1].
Here ##\partial_{A A^{\prime}}= e^a{ }_{A A^{\prime}} \partial_a## is the spinorial derivative associated with the metric compatible derivative ##\partial_a## on ##M##, i.e., ##\partial_c \eta_{a b}=0 ; e^a{ }_{A A^{\prime}}## is the soldering form given by a complex-valued null tetrad basis for the metric ##\eta_{a b}## satisfying ##e^a{ }_{A A^{\prime}} e^b{ }_{B B^{\prime}} \eta_{a b}=\epsilon_{A B} \epsilon_{A^{\prime} B^{\prime}}##, where ##\epsilon_{A B}## is the spin metric.
Throughout this paper we use the index notation and conventions of Ref. [1];
the metric signature is ##(+,-,-,-)##, and the spin metric is used for raising/lowering indices.
Note that, in standard Minkowski coordinates ##x^\mu##, the components of the derivative operators ##\partial_a## and ##\partial_{A A^{\prime}}## are simply the coordinate partial derivatives ##\partial_\mu=\partial / \partial x^\mu## and ##e^\mu{ }_{A A^{\prime}} \partial_\mu=\partial / \partial x^{A A^{\prime}}##, respectively, with ##x^{A A^{\prime}}=e_\mu^{A A^{\prime}} x^\mu##.
...


p 18: A. Electric and magnetic spin ##s \geq 1/2## fields

As a preliminary, we consider the familiar case ##s=1##.
Using a timelike unit vector ##t^{A A^{\prime}}##, we define the electric and magnetic parts of the ##s=1## field strength ##\phi_{A B}## by ##\vec{E}_{A A^{\prime}}+\mathrm{i} \vec{B}_{A A^{\prime}}= t_A{ }^{B^{\prime}} \bar{\phi}_{A^{\prime} B^{\prime}}##, where ##\vec{E}_{A A^{\prime}}, \vec{B}_{A A^{\prime}}## represent real-valued vectors satisfying ##t^{A A^{\prime}} \vec{E}_{A A^{\prime}}=t^{A A^{\prime}} \vec{B}_{A A^{\prime}}=## 0 .
Thus ##\vec{E}_{A A^{\prime}}, \vec{B}_{A A^{\prime}}## have no time component, and we thereby obtain the decomposition ##\bar{\phi}_{A^{\prime} B^{\prime}}=2 t_{A^{\prime}}{ }^A\left(\vec{E}_{A B^{\prime}}+\mathrm{i} \vec{B}_{A B^{\prime}}\right)##.
Now, we split the ##s=1## field equations ##\bar{\phi}_{A^{\prime} B^{\prime}, A}{ }^{B^{\prime}}=0## into time and space components with respect to ##t^{A A^{\prime}}##.
Let ##D_t=t^{A A^{\prime}} D_{A A^{\prime}}## denote the total time derivative, and ##\vec{D}_{A A^{\prime}}=D_{A A^{\prime}}-t_{A A^{\prime}} D_t## denote the total spatial gradient.
The splitting then yields
$$
\begin{align*}
& D_t \vec{E}_{A A^{\prime}}=\vec{D} \times \vec{B}_{A A^{\prime}}, \quad \vec{D} \cdot \vec{E}=0 \tag{5.2}\\
& D_t \vec{B}_{A A^{\prime}}=-\vec{D} \times \vec{E}_{A A^{\prime}}, \quad \vec{D} \cdot \vec{B}=0 \tag{5.3}
\end{align*}
$$
where ##\vec{D}\cdot ## and ##\vec{D} \times## denote the standard spatial divergence and curl operators which act on spinorial vector functions ##v_{A A^{\prime}}## satisfying ##t^{A A^{\prime}} v_{A A^{\prime}}=0## on ##J^{\infty}(\phi)## by

$$
\begin{equation*}
\vec{D} \cdot v=\vec{D}^{A A^{\prime}} v_{A A^{\prime}}, \quad \vec{D} \times v_{A A^{\prime}}=\mathrm{i} t^{B B^{\prime}}\left(\vec{D}_{A B^{\prime}} v_{B A^{\prime}}-\vec{D}_{B A^{\prime}} v_{A B^{\prime}}\right) \tag{5.4}
\end{equation*}
$$
Thus, equations (5.2) and (5.3) describe an electric-magnetic formulation of the ##s=1## field equations, comprising a spinorial version of the Maxwell equations.

We now proceed analogously for integer spins ##s=1,2, \ldots##. Write
$$
\begin{equation*}
t_{A_1}{ }^{B_1^{\prime}} \cdots t_{A_s}{ }^{B_s^{\prime}} \bar{\phi}_{A_1^{\prime} \cdots A_s^{\prime} B_1^{\prime} \cdots B_s^{\prime}}=\vec{E}_{A_1 \cdots A_s A_1^{\prime} \cdots A_s^{\prime}}+\mathrm{i} \vec{B}_{A_1 \cdots A_s A_1^{\prime} \cdots A_s^{\prime}}, \tag{5.5}
\end{equation*}
$$
where ##\vec{E}_{A_1 \cdots A_s A_1^{\prime} \cdots A_s^{\prime}}, \vec{B}_{A_1 \cdots A_s A_1^{\prime} \cdots A_s^{\prime}}## are real symmetric spinors satisfying
$$
\begin{equation*}
t^{A_1 A_1^{\prime}} \vec{E}_{A_1 \cdots A_s A_1^{\prime} \cdots A_s^{\prime}}=t^{A_1 A_1^{\prime}} \vec{B}_{A_1 \cdots A_s A_1^{\prime} \cdots A_s^{\prime}}=0 . \tag{5.6}
\end{equation*}
$$ ...

[1] Penrose, R. and Rindler, W. , Spinors and Space-time, Volumes I, II, (Cambridge University Press 1986)
 
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