70 Chapter 3. The Dirac Field Charge Conjugation The last of the three discrete symmetries is the particle-antiparticle sym- metry C. There will be no problem in implementing C’ as a unitary linear operator. Charge conjugation is conventionally defined to take a fermion with a given spin orientation into an antifermion with the same spin orientation. Thus, a convenient choice for the transformation of fermion annihilation op- erators is CasC be; ChE = as. (3.143) Again, we ignore possible additional phases for simplicity. Next we want to work out the action of C’ on yp(zx). First we need a relation between v°(p) and u'(p). Using (3.136), and (3.134), sy yt — ( VP 9-076) V _ (io? Vp FEY _ (0. ~io? \/ Vp-€ woo = (erates) = (eopore)= (oe 0 )(Yerve) where € stands for €°. That is, WP) =-H7("@)", — M@) =F (w')’- (3.144) If we substitute (3.144) into the expression for the fermion field operator, and then transform this operator with C, we find 13, cucae = | oe rae D (Hp oo) eee — ita (wre) = iw (2) = iP (wt) = 1H)”. (3.145) Note that C is a linear unitary operator, even though it takes y > w*. Once again, we would like to know how C acts on fermion bilinears. First we need CHa) C = CytCy? = (-i7?h)" 79 = (i774). (3.146) Working out the transformations of bilinears is a bit tricky, and it helps to write in spinor indices. For the scalar, COU = (=i PW)" (dy) = ~rsrheeaTe Vea = 4b) Pry ethe = — B29? (3.147 +WaVdeVeaVabYooWe yyw 147) = ty. (The minus sign in the third step is from fermion anticommutation.) The pseudo-scalar is no more difficult: Ci PHC = I-17 Pd) (HYP PY” = thd. (3.148) We must do each component of the vector and pseudo-vector separately. Not- ing that +” and +? are symmetric matrices while 7! and +? are antisymmetric,