[Physics] Majorana equation in two forms

charge-conjugationdirac-equationmajorana-fermions

Let's have two forms of Majorana equation.

First form (standart or spinor representations of gamma-matrices).

$$
i\gamma^{\mu} \partial_{\mu}\Psi – m\Psi = 0, \quad \Psi = \Psi_{c} = \hat {C} \bar {\Psi}^{T} = \begin{pmatrix} \Psi_{a} \\ \bar {\Psi}^{\dot {a}}\end{pmatrix}, \quad \hat {C} = diag (\varepsilon_{\alpha \beta}, \varepsilon^{\dot {\alpha} \dot {\beta}}) = diag (-i\sigma_{y}, i\sigma_{y}).
$$
I only say that the spinor is equal to its charge-conjugated, so the corresponding particle doesn't have an electric charge.

The second form (Majorana representation of gamma-matrices).

$$
i\tilde {\gamma}^{\mu} \partial_{\mu}\Psi – m\Psi = 0,
$$
where all coefficients are real, so we can take $\Psi$ as the real function (for the Majorana fermions we must take $\Psi$ as the real function).

So, the question: how these forms are connected? First, of course, I must get the unitary transformation $\Psi ' = \hat {U} \Psi$, which leads to $\tilde {\gamma}_{\mu} = \hat {U}^{+}\gamma_{\mu} \hat {U}$. But what to do with the definition of charge conjugation? Do I need to transform $C$-matrix? If I think correctly, will transformation $\hat {U}^{+} \hat {C} \hat {U}$ lead to the new charge conjugation operation, which consists only complex conjugation of the spinor?

An edit.

I decided to check my assumptions about charge conjugating. It is determined as
$$
\Psi^{c} = \hat {C} \gamma_{0}^{T} \Psi^{*},
$$
where $\hat {C}$ refers to the charge conjugation operator.

I started from spinor basis:
$$
\gamma_{0} = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{pmatrix}, \quad \hat {C} = \begin{pmatrix} -i\sigma_{y} & 0 \\ 0 & i\sigma_{y}\end{pmatrix}.
$$
Standart (or Dirac) basis:
$$
U_{spinor\to standart} = U_{1} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 1 & -1\end{pmatrix} \Rightarrow
$$
$$
\gamma_{0}^{Dirac} = U_{1}^{+}\gamma_{0}U_{1} =\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & -1\end{pmatrix}, \quad \hat {C}^{Dirac} = -\begin{pmatrix} 0 & i\sigma_{y} \\ i\sigma_{y} & 0\end{pmatrix}.
$$
Finally, Majorana basis:
$$
U_{standart \to Majorana} = U_{2} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\begin{pmatrix} 1 & \sigma_{y} \\ \sigma_{y} & -1\end{pmatrix} \Rightarrow
$$
$$
\gamma_{0}^{Majorana} = U_{2}^{+}\gamma_{0}^{Dirac}U_{2} =\begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_{y} \\ \sigma_{y} & 0\end{pmatrix}, \quad \hat {C}^{Majorana} = \begin{pmatrix} -i & 0 \\ 0 & i\end{pmatrix}.
$$
So
$$
\Psi^{c} = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & i\sigma_{y} \\ -i\sigma_{y} & 0\end{pmatrix}\Psi^{*} \neq \Psi^{*}.
$$

It is very strange, because Majorana fermion is real in Majorana representation, so charge conjugation must be equal to complex conjugation.

Where is the mistake?

One more edit.

The answer is found.

Best Answer

The transformation rule for $\hat{C}$ or that of $\hat{C}\gamma_{0}^{T}$ is different from the usual one.

The whole charge conjugation operation is given by $VK$, where $V\equiv\hat{C}\gamma_{0}^{T}$ is unitary and $K$ is complex conjugation. (i.e., $VK$ is antiunitary.) Then, under a basis transformation, $$ VK \ \rightarrow \ U^{\dagger}VK U = U^{\dagger}VU^{\ast} K. $$ Hence $V$ transforms as $V \ \rightarrow \ U^{\dagger}VU^{\ast}$. My guess is that this is the piece that was missing in your derivation.

Related Question