Exact Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation of the Dirac-Pauli Hamiltonian in the weak-field limit by the method of direct perturbation theory

Abstract

We apply the method of direct perturbation theory for the Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) transformation upon the Dirac-Pauli Hamiltonian subject to external electromagnetic fields. The exact FW transformations exist and agree with those obtained by Eriksen's method for two special cases. In the weak-field limit of static and homogeneous electromagnetic fields, by mathematical induction on the orders of $1/c$ in the power series, we rigorously prove the long-held speculation: the FW transformed Dirac-Pauli Hamiltonian is in full agreement with the classical counterpart, which is the sum of the orbital Hamiltonian for the Lorentz force equation and the spin Hamiltonian for the Thomas-Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation.