[Physics] Why didn’t the Klein-Gordon equation suggest antimatter like the Dirac equation did

antimatterdirac-equationhistoryklein-gordon-equationquantum mechanics

I have heard the story that the Dirac equation suggested the existence of antimatter due to the existence of negative energy solutions. The Klein-Gordon equation also has negative energy solutions. Therefore does it not also suggest the existence of antimatter?

(I know historically it was Dirac who proposed antimatter using his equation, but would the same argument work for the Klein-Gordon equation?)

Best Answer

In the beginnings of quantum theory, people were looking at the K-G and the Dirac equation as equations for wave functions (or at least something similar that would give them a probability density like the non-relativistic wavefunctions did) - the notion of a "quantum field" did not yet exist.

As an equation for such (generalized) wavefunctions, the K-G equation is rather obvious "nonsense" - not only does it have "negative energy solutions", but its solutions also produce negative probability densities (see e.g. this answer by gented). So negative energy solutions to the K-G equations weren't really hinting at antiparticles, since everyone knew the solutions to the K-G equation didn't produce meaningful quantum states anyway.

In contrast, the Dirac equation as a first-order equation gives solutions with positive probability densities, so its solutions can be interpreted as defining quantum states, and so its negative energy solutions "suggest" antiparticles.

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