Sunday, May 24, 2015

quantum field theory - Green's function for adjoint Dirac Equation


If SF(xy) is the Green's function for the Dirac operator (iγμμm), that is, I assume the following matrix equation holds: (iγμμm)SF(xy)=iδ(xy)


The adjoint dirac equation is: iμˉψγμmˉψ=0


I am looking for the Green's function of the above equation, in terms of SF(xy), that is, if F[S] is some function of S (may include complex conjugation, transposing, etc), then I am looking for such an F[S] such that this equation holds: iμF[S]γμmF[S]=iδ(xy)


What I have done so far:




  1. Dagger this equation: (iγμμm)SF(xy)=iδ(xy) and get (iμSF(xy)γμSF(xy)m)=iδ(xy)

  2. Multiply by γ0 on the right to get: (iμ[¯SF(xy)]γμ[¯SF(xy)]m)=iδ(xy)γ0

  3. So [¯SF(xy)] almost solves this equation, except you get a factor of γ0 on the right which I am not sure how to handle.



Answer



The solution to the problem can be found in the nature of the propagator of the Dirac equation: it is a matrix with two spinor indices, i.e.


SF(xy)=SF(xy)αβ.


In step 2, you have treated the propagator as if it was a spinor with a single index, which is not correct. Avoiding this, but multiplying the equation by γ0 from the left leaves you with the result


F(S)=γ0Sγ0=ˉS.


The last equality sign is consistent with the reference given in one of the comments and with the definition of the adjoint of a matrix discussed in this question.



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