Remarks on the Dirac oscillator in (2 + 1) dimensions

Fabiano M. Andrade1, ∗ and Edilberto O. Silva2, †

1
Departamento de Matemática e Estatı́stica, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, 84030-900 Ponta Grossa-PR, Brazil
2
Departamento de Fı́sica, Universidade Federal do Maranhão,
Campus Universitário do Bacanga, 65085-580 São Luı́s-MA, Brazil
(Dated: June 13, 2014)
In this article the Dirac oscillator in (2 + 1) dimensions is considered. We solve the problem
in polar coordinates and discuss the dependence of the energy spectrum on the spin s and angular
momentum quantum number m. We observe that the degeneracy of the energy spectrum can occurs
for all possible values of sm.
arXiv:1406.3249v1 [hep-th] 12 Jun 2014

The Dirac oscillator, first introduced in [1] and af- The γ matrices are conveniently defined in terms of the
ter develop in [2], has been an usual model for study- Pauli matrices [14]
ing the physical properties of physical systems in various
branches of physics. In the context of theoretical con- βγx = σx , βγy = sσy , β = σz , (4)
tributions, the Dirac oscillator has been analyzed under
different aspects such as the study of the covariance prop- where s is twice the spin value, with s = +1 for spin
erties and Foldy-Wouthuysen and Cini-Touschek trans- “up” and s = −1 for spin “down”. In this manner, Eq.
formations [3], as a special case of a class of chiral so- (3) can be written as
lutions to the automorphism gauge field equations [4], (σx πx + sσy πy + σz M ) ψ = Eψ, (5)
and hidden supersymmetry produced by the interaction
iM ωβr, where M is the mass, ω the frequency of the where πj = pj − iM ωσz rj .
oscillator and r is the position vector, when it plays a As usual, we write Eq. (5) in polar coordinates (r, φ)
role of anomalous magnetic interaction [5] (see also Refs.   
[3, 6]). s
Recently, the Dirac oscillator had its first experimen- eisσz φ σx ∂ρ + σy ∂φ − iM ωρ ψ = i(E − M σz )ψ.
ρ
tal realization [7], which made the system more attrac- (6)
tive from the point of view of applications. The Dirac If one uses the spinor in the standard representation
oscillator in (2 + 1) dimensions, when the third spatial  
coordinate is absent, has also been studied in Refs. [8– ψ1
ψ= , (7)
10]. Additionally, this system was proposed in [11] to ψ2
describe some electronic properties of monolayer an by-
layer graphene. For a detailed approach of the Dirac Eq. (6) leads to
oscillator see the Refs. [12, 13].  
In this article, we address the Dirac oscillator in (2 + s
∂ρ − i ∂φ − M ωρ ψ2 = ieisφ (E − M )ψ1 , (8a)
1) dimensions. We obtain the energy spectrum, wave ρ
functions and clarify its physical implications.
We begin by writing the Dirac equation in (2 + 1) di- 
s

mensions (~ = c = 1) ∂ρ + i ∂φ + M ωρ ψ1 = ie−isφ (E + M )ψ2 . (8b)
ρ
(βγ · p + βM ) ψ = Eψ, (1)
By manipulation of Eq. (8), we can decouple them and
where p = (px , py ) is the momentum operator and ψ is a obtain the following set of equations for the spinor com-
two-component spinor. The Dirac oscillator is obtained ponents
through the following nonmininal prescription [2]
p2 + M 2 ω 2 r2 − 2M ω − 2M ωsLz ψ1 = (E 2 − M 2 )ψ1 ,

p → p − iM ωβr, (2) (9a)

p2 + M 2 ω 2 r2 + 2M ω − 2M ωsLz ψ2 = (E 2 − M 2 )ψ2 ,


where r = (x, y) is the position vector and ω stands for
the Dirac oscillator frequency. Thus, the relevant equa- (9b)
tion is where Lz = −i∂φ . We decomposes the spinor as
imφ
   P 
[βγ · (p − iM ωβr) + βM ] ψ = Eψ. (3) ψ1 m f m (r) e
ψ= = P i(m+s)φ , (10)
ψ2 m igm (r) e

where m = 0, ±1, ±2, ±3, . . . is the angular momentum

∗ fmandrade@uepg.br quantum number. The factor i on the lower spinor com-
† edilbertoo@gmail.com ponent is included for convenience. By replacing Eq. (10)
 2

into Eq. (9), we can write the radial equation for fm (r) HaL
 2  n
′′ 1 ′ m 6
− fm (r) − fm (r) + + M ω r fm (r) = k 2 fm (r),
2 2 2 0 1 2 3 4 5
r r2
5
(11)
where

Energy HauL
4
2 2 2
k = E − M + 2M ω(sm + 1). (12) 3
A similar equation for gm (r) there exists. Using the 2
change of variable ρ = M ωr2 , Eq. (11) assumes the
form 1
 2
k2

′′ ′ m ρ
ρfm (ρ) + fm (ρ) − + − fm (ρ) = 0, (13) 0
4ρ 4 4γ -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

with γ = M ω. Studying the asymptotic limits of Eq. m

(13) leads us to the following regular solutions
HbL
fm (ρ) = ρ(|m|+1)/2 e−ρ/2 M (ρ). (14)
6 n
0 1 2 3 4 5
Substitution of Eq. (14) into Eq. (13), results
5
ρM ′′ (ρ) + (1 + |m| − ρ) M ′ (ρ)
Energy HauL
4
1 + |m| k 2
 
− − M (ρ) = 0. (15)
2 4γ 3

Equation (15) is a confluent hypergeometric-like equation 2

zM ′′ (z) + (b − z)M ′ (z) − aM (z) = 0, (16) 1

where M (z) is the confluent hypergeometric function 0

[15]. In this manner, the unnormalized regular solution -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
for Eq. (15) is m

fm (ρ) = ρ(|m|+1)/2 e−ρ/2 M (d, 1 + |m|, ρ) , (17)
where
1 + |m| k2
d= − . (18)
2 4γ
In order to find the energy spectrum of the Dirac os-
cillator, we should establish as convergence criterion the
condition d = −n, with n a nonnegative integer. Then,
the energy levels are given by
p We can also obtain the energy spectrum for the Dirac
E = ± M 2 + 2M ω(2n + |m| − sm), n = 0, 1, 2, . . . ,
(19)
and the corresponding unnormalized wave function is
fm (ρ) = ρ(|m|+1)/2 e−ρ/2 M (−n, 1 + |m|, ρ) . (20)
It is important to note that, the energy levels are spin
dependent and the energy expression yield an infinity de-
generacy for all possible values of sm. Indeed, according
to Eq. (19), for sm < 0, we have: for s = 1 and m < 0 all
levels with n ± q and m ± q have the same energy, while
for s = −1 and m > 0 the equal energy levels are the
one with n ± q and m ∓ q, being q an integer. Moreover,
for sm > 0, all the energy levels are independent of the
FIG. 1. (Color online) The positive energy spectrum, Eq.
(19), for the Dirac oscillator in (2+1) dimensions for different
values of n and m with M = ω = 1 and for: (a) s = 1 and
(b) s = −1. Notice that levels with quantum numbers n ± q
for s = 1 (s = −1) have the same energy as levels with m ± q
(m ∓ q), with q an integer. For sm > 0, it is clear that the
energy spectrum is independent of m.
angular quantum number m. This behavior is depicted
in Fig. 1.
oscillator in (2 + 1) dimensions following the standard
derivation of Moshinsky and Szczepaniak [2]. Indeed,
operating [σx πx + sσy πy + σz M + E] on the Eq. (5), one
obtains
[p2 + M 2 ω 2 r2 − 2M ω(σz + sLz )]ψ = (E 2 − M 2 )ψ, (21)
in complete agreement with Eq. (9). Equation (21),
restoring the factors ~ and c, in terms of components,
becomes
 2 
2 p 1 2 2
2M c + M ω r − ~ω − sωL3 ψ1 =
2M 2
(E 2 − M 2 c4 )ψ1 , (22a)

p2
 
1 orbit coupling, which (restoring the factor ~) is of order
2M c2 + M ω 2 r2 + ~ω − sωL3 ψ2 =
2M 2 ω/~. Summarizing, the nonrelativistic limit of the Dirac
(E 2 − M 2 c4 )ψ2 . (22b)
Equation (22), for s = 1, agreed with the expressions
found in Eq. (A2) of Ref. [8] and Eqs. (9) and (22) of
Ref. [16].
In order to investigate the role played by the nonmin-
imal prescription in (2) as well as their physical implica-
tions, we should evaluate the nonrelativistic limit of Eq.
(21). In this case, writing E = M + E, with M ≫ E, we
get
p2
 
1 2 2 3
+ M ω r − ω(σ + sLz ) ψ = Eψ. (23)
2M 2 the literature.
The first two terms on the left side of Eq. (23) are those
that appear in the Hamiltonian of the nonrelativistic cir-
cular harmonic oscillator [17], explaining why this system
is called Dirac oscillator. The third term is a constant
which shifts all energy levels. The last term is the spin-
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3
oscillator in (2 + 1) dimensions is the circular harmonic
oscillator with a strong spin-orbit coupling term with all
levels shifted by the factor ω. Indeed, the shifted energy
levels are
E + ω = (1 + 2n + |m| − sm)ω. (24)
As for the relativistic case, the infinity degeneracy is also
present.
In summary, we have shown that the energy spectrum
of the Dirac oscillator in (2 + 1) depends on the value of
spin projection parameter s. On the other hand, it has
also shown that energy spectrum is degenerated for all
possible values of sm, a behavior not discussed before in
This work was supported by the Fundação Araucária
(Grant No. 205/2013), and the Conselho Nacional de
Desenvolvimento Cientı́fico e Tecnológico (Grants No.
482015/2013-6 (Universal), No. 306068/2013-3 (PQ))
and FAPEMA (Grant No. 00845/13).
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