3.3 Free-Particle Solutions of the Dirac Equation AT while for € = (?) (spin down along the 3-axis) we have 3 (0 0 NL ea 2) ae vee (")), (3.53) VE—PA(2)/) targe boost 0 In the limit 7 — oo the states degenerate into the two-component spinors of a massless particle. (We now see the reason for the factor of y/m in (3.47): It keeps the spinor expressions finite in the massless limit.) The solutions (3.52) and (3.53) are eigenstates of the helicity operator, h=p *) ; (3.54) A particle with h = +1/2 is called right-handed, while one with h = —1/2 is called left-handed. The helicity of a massive particle depends on the frame of reference, since one can always boost to a frame in which its momentum is in the opposite direction (but its spin is unchanged). For a massless particle, which travels at the speed of light, one cannot perform such a boost. The extremely simple form of u(p) for a massless particle in a helicity eigenstate makes the behavior of such a particle easy to understand. In Chap- ter 1, it enabled us to guess the form of the e+e~ — y+ ~ cross section in the massless limit. In subsequent chapters we will often do a mindless calculation first, then look at helicity eigenstates in the high-energy limit to understand what we have done. Incidentally, we are now ready to understand the origin of the notation wr and wr for Weyl spinors. The solutions of the Wey! equations are states of definite helicity, corresponding to left- and right-handed particles, respectively. The Lorentz invariance of helicity (for a massless particle) is manifest in the notation of Weyl spinors, since yz and qx live in different representations of the Lorentz group. It is convenient to write the normalization condition for u(p) in a Lorentz- invariant way. We saw above that yz is not Lorentz invariant. Similarly, ulu= (elvp-a, 8 Vp-B) - Ca VP oe (3.55) = 2EpEté. To make a Lorentz scalar we define Up) = ul (p)>?. (3.56) Then by an almost identical calculation, iu = Iméte. (3.57) This will be our normalization condition, once we also require that the two- component spinor € be normalized as usual: €'€ = 1. It is also conventional to choose basis spinors €' and €? (such as (j) and (?)) that are orthogonal. For