42 Chapter 3. The Dirac Field
Now that we have the transformation law for ¢, we should look for an
appropriate field equation. One possibility is simply the Klein-Gordon equa-
tion:
(P +m?)p =0. (3.28)
This works because the spinor transformation matrices (3.26) and (3.27) op-
crate only in the “internal” space; they go right through the differential oper-
ator. But it is possible to write a stronger, first-order equation, which implies
(3.28) but contains additional information. To do this we need to know one
more property of the 7 matrices. With a short computation you can verify
that
fy, SP?) = (FP? )9",
or equivalently,
(1 Sear SH) 41 = farpn 8) = (I~ furpo TP?) a".
This equation is just the infinitesimal form of
AVY Ay = Mir", (3.29)
where
a py
Ay = exp(—je 5”) (3.30)
is the spinor representation of the Lorentz transformation A (compare (3.19)).
Equation (3.29) says that the 7 matrices are invariant under simultaneous
rotations of their vector and spinor indices (just like the o* under spatial
rotations). In other words, we can “take the vector index j: on 7 seriously,”
and dot 7 into 0, to form a Lorentz-invariant differential operator.
We are now ready to write down the Dirac equation. Here it is:
(0, — m)p(a) = 0. (3.31)
To show that it is Lorentz invariant, write down the Lorentz-transformed
version of the left-hand side and calculate:
[iu — m)ab(e) = [ey (AM) "Oy — m] Ay (Ate)
= ALAY [ey"(A71)4,8, -— mJAy (Ata)
=Ay [iay ofA (AT *)%,d, — m)y(At2)
Ay is (AY dy — m] ep Ate
Ay [ivy — m)b(A*)
0.