[Physics] Intrinsic parity of fermions and anti-fermions: why are they opposite

fermionsparityquantum mechanicsquantum-field-theoryspecial-relativity

Is there any reason as to why we assign opposite parities to fermions and anti-fermions?

As far as I know, the only theoretical reason is that this is what Dirac's equation predicts, but this seems very limited in my opinion. I was wondering if, on a more fundamental level, this could be deduced from the properties of the Lorentz Group or the spin-statistic theorem$^{[1]}$.

In the same spirit, is there any reason to assign the same parity to bosons and anti-bosons? Again, is this just a convention, or does it follow from some fundamental requirement, like Lorentz invariance?


$^{[1]}$ or even the CPT theorem. This would be slightly contrived and roundabout in my opinion, but it is certainly more fundamental than Dirac's equation.

Best Answer

If you consider the Dirac field $\psi$ as a linear combination of the particle annihilation part $\psi^+$ and the antiparticle creation part $\psi^{-c}$, then we have the requirement that $P\psi(x)P^{-1}$ should be proportional to $\psi(Px)$, where $P$ is the parity/space inversion operator. (I commit a slight abuse of notation here - the $P$ is both the unitary operator representing parity acting on the space of states and the space inversion operator on Minkowski space sending $(t,\vec x)$ to $(t,-\vec x)$ in the argument.

In general, we have also that this should hold for $\psi^+$ and $\psi^{-c}$, i.e. \begin{align} P \psi^+(x)P^{-1} & = \eta^\ast b_u \psi^+(Px) \\ P \psi^{-c}(x)P^{-1} & = \eta^c b_v \psi^{-c}(Px) \end{align} where the $\eta^\ast$ and $\eta^c$ are the phases by which the anti-creation /annihilation operators transform and the $b_{u/v}$ are the phases by which the fundamental spinors traditionally denoted as $u_s,v_s$ transform. These formulae come about because e.g. $\psi^+(x) = \sum_s \int u_s(\vec p) \exp(-\mathrm{i}px)a_s(\vec p)\mathrm{d}^3p$ schematically, and likewise for $\psi^{-c}$. One can then show that $b_u = -b_v$, and for $P\psi(x)P^{-1}$ to be propertional to $\psi(Px)$ we must then have that $\eta^\ast = -\eta^c$ because otherwise $\psi(x) = c_1 \psi^+(x) + c_2 \psi^{-c}$ cannot be proportional because the relative sign would change under parity.

For a more detailed derivation, see "The quantum theory of fields" by Weinberg, volume 1, section 5.5 as suggested in a comment by TwoBs.

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