Spin-orbit splittings in heavy-light mesons and Dirac equation

Abstract

The spin-orbit splitting in heavy-light mesons is seen to be suppressed experimentally. It is shown that it can be understood qualitatively in the frame work of Dirac theory. An alternative derivation of a relativistic dynamical symmetry for the Dirac Hamiltonian, which suppresses spin orbit splitting, is also given. However it is shown that such a symmetry is not needed since the spin-orbit splitting in Dirac theory with Coulomb like potential (as is the case for the one gluon exchange potential in pQCD) is small anyway.