46 Chapter 3. The Dirac Field where 7) is some infinitesimal parameter. For finite 7 we must write EV _ oco[p (9 1\] (™ PP) PPM of} lo 10 : ol m = [oostn (5 ¢) +sinhn (¢ 0) | (7) (3.48) _ {meosha ~ \msinby)* ‘The parameter 77 is called the rapidity. It is the quantity that is additive under successive boosts. Now apply the same boost to u(p). According to Eqs. (3.26) and (3.30), or-mbn(t 2) 7 [cosut4m ( Hy) ~ sinh(2n) G )) = : n/2(l-0% -n/2(1+0% = (CPF) Fe (HF) We ININITY ent 0 en/? (Ler) 4 en/2 (toe ) & [VE FRO) + VE") ¢ [VE FR(M) + VERS) ¢ The last line can be simplified to give es) u(p) = ( =.) ) vP oe, where it is understood that in taking the square root of a matrix, we take the positive root of each eigenvalue. This expression for u(p) is not only more compact, but is also valid for an arbitrary direction of p. When working with expressions of this form, it is often useful to know the identity (3.49) (3.50) (p-o)(p-3) =p? =m’. (3.51) You can then verify directly that (3.50) is a solution of the Dirac equation in the form of (3.43). In practice it is often convenient to work with specific spinors ¢. A useful choice here would be eigenstates of 0%. For example, if € = (}) (spin up along the 3-axis), we get ae a) were V2E( (i): oe