Speed-of-light pulses in the massless nonlinear Dirac equation with a potential

Abstract

We consider the massless nonlinear Dirac (NLD) equation in $1+1$ dimension with scalar-scalar self-interaction $\frac{g^2}{2} (\bar{\Psi} \Psi)^2$ in the presence of three external electromagnetic potentials $V(x)$, a potential barrier, a constant potential, and a potential well. By solving numerically the NLD equation, we find that, for all three cases, after a short transit time, the initial pulse breaks into two pulses which are solutions of the massless linear Dirac equation traveling in opposite directions with the speed of light. During this splitting the charge and the energy are conserved, whereas the momentum is conserved when the solutions possess specific symmetries. For the case of the constant potential, we derive exact analytical solutions of the massless NLD equation that are also solutions of the massless linearized Dirac equation.