On the polarization of fermion in an intermediate state

Abstract

We show that calculation of a final fermion polarization (for a pure initial state) is equivalent to the problem of looking for complete polarization axis of bispinor. This gives the method for calculation of polarization applicable both for final and intermediate state fermions. We suggest to use fermion propagator (bare or dressed) in form of spectral representation, which gives the orthogonal off-shell energy projectors. This representation leads to covariant separation of particle and antiparticle contributions and gives a natural definition for polarization of intermediate state fermion. The most evident application is related with consistent description of $t$-quark polarization.