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Relativistic electron vortices

Barnett, S. M. (2017) Relativistic electron vortices. Physical Review Letters, 118(11), 114802. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.114802)

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Abstract

The desire to push recent experiments on electron vortices to higher energies has led to some theoretical difficulties. In particular the simple and very successful picture of phase vortices of vortex charge $\ell$ associated with $\ell\hbar$ units of orbital angular momentum per electron has been challenged by the facts that: (i) the spin and orbital angular momentum are not separately conserved for a Dirac electron, which suggests that the existence of a spin-orbit coupling will complicate matters and (ii) that the velocity of a Dirac electron is not simply the gradient of a phase as it is in the Schr\"{o}dinger theory suggesting that, perhaps, electron vortices might not exist at a fundamental level. We resolve these difficulties by showing that electron vortices do indeed exist in the relativistic theory and show that the charge of such a vortex is simply related to a conserved orbital part of the total angular momentum, closely related to the familiar situation for the orbital angular momentum of a photon.

Item Type:	Articles (Letter)
Keywords:	Electrons, vortices, Dirac equation.
Status:	Published
Refereed:	Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:	Barnett, Professor Stephen
Authors:	Barnett, S. M.
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
College/School:	College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Research Group:	Quantum Theory
Journal Name:	Physical Review Letters
Journal Abbr.:	Physical. Rev. Lett.
Publisher:	American Physical Society
ISSN:	0031-9007
ISSN (Online):	1079-7114
Copyright Holders:	Copyright © 2017 American Physical Society
First Published:	First published in Physical Review Letters 118(11): 114802
Publisher Policy:	Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record

Funder and Project Information

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
72129	1	Astronomy and physics, theoretical physics and application physics / Quantum Theory. Royal Society Research Professorship.	Stephen Barnett	Royal Society (ROYSOC)	RP150122	S&E P&A - PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

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Deposit and Record Details

ID Code:	134012
Depositing User:	Professor Stephen Barnett
Datestamp:	12 Jan 2017 11:00
Last Modified:	28 May 2020 14:16
Date of acceptance:	12 January 2017
Date of first online publication:	13 March 2017
Date Deposited:	12 January 2017
Data Availability Statement:	No