Axial momentum for the relativistic Majorana particle

Abstract

The Hilbert space of states of the relativistic Majorana particle consists of normalizable bispinors with real components, and the usual momentum operator $- i \nabla$ can not be defined in this space. For this reason, we introduce the axial momentum operator, $ - i \gamma_5 \nabla$ as a new observable for this particle. In the Heisenberg picture, the axial momentum contains a component which oscillates with the amplitude proportional to $m/E$, where $E$ is the energy and $m$ the mass of the particle. The presence of the oscillations discriminates between the massive and massless Majorana particle. We show how the eigenvectors of the axial momentum, called the axial plane waves, can be used as a basis for obtaining the general solution of the evolution equation, also in the case of free Majorana field. Here a novel feature is a coupling of modes with the opposite momenta, again present only in the case of massive particle or field.