What is the significance of the Dirac equation in understanding antimatter?

[Haibara Ai]

My friend sent me a picture of an equation that has something to do with antimatter.
http://static1.web.cern.ch/static1/ad/images/antimatter/dirac_equation.jpg
Can someone please tell me what the equation and everything in it means?

Thank you very much!

 

[tiny-tim]

Hi Haibara!

(have a gamma: γ and a mu: µ and a psi: ψ and try using the X² and X₂ tags just above the Reply box )

This is Dirac's equation for an electron (or any other spin-half particle), with hbar = c = 1 …

(iγ^µ∂_µ - m)ψ …

or, in full …

i(γ⁰∂ψ/∂x₀ + γ¹∂ψ/∂x₁ + γ²∂ψ/∂x₂ + γ³∂ψ/∂x₃) = mψ

ψ is a 4-component vector, and the gammas are 4x4 matrices


Paul Dirac invented it around 1928, and used it to predict that the electron had an anti-particle (the positron, which is antimatter), which was discovered many years later.

For some more (but not very helpful ) detail, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac's_equation

 

[malawi_glenn]

here is a complete course in relativistic quantum mechanics

http://www.phys.uAlberta.ca/~gingrich/phys512/latex2html/node20.html

 

[richard14]

Hi Haibara!

(have a gamma: γ and a mu: µ and a psi: ψ and try using the X² and X₂ tags just above the Reply box )

This is Dirac's equation for an electron (or any other spin-half particle), with hbar = c = 1 …

(iγ^µ∂_µ - m)ψ …

or, in full …

i(γ⁰∂ψ/∂x₀ + γ¹∂ψ/∂x₁ + γ²∂ψ/∂x₂ + γ³∂ψ/∂x₃) = mψ

ψ is a 4-component vector, and the gammas are 4x4 matrices


Paul Dirac invented it around 1928, and used it to predict that the electron had an anti-particle (the positron, which is antimatter), which was discovered many years later.

For some more (but not very helpful ) detail, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac's_equation

tiny tim i got a question, i am a beginner in physics but i have being reading about the hypothetical neutralino the particle that is say to be the dark matter particle and my doubt is the annihilations between tem caused by the weak force.Thank you very much for your help.

 

[tiny-tim]

tiny tim i got a question, i am a beginner in physics but i have being reading about the hypothetical neutralino the particle that is say to be the dark matter particle and my doubt is the annihilations between tem caused by the weak force.Thank you very much for your help.

erm … that's completely different …

please start a new thread ​

 

[Haibara Ai]

Thanks, that helped a lot!