Spin Force and Torque in Non-relativistic Dirac Oscillator on a Sphere

The spin force operator on a non-relativistic Dirac oscillator ( in the non-relativistic limit the Dirac oscillator is a spin one-half 3D harmonic oscillator with strong spin-orbit interaction) is derived using the Heisenberg equations of motion and is seen to be formally similar to the force by the electromagnetic field on a moving charged particle . When confined to a sphere of radius R, it is shown that the Hamiltonian of this non-relativistic oscillator can be expressed as a mere kinetic energy operator with an anomalous part. As a result, the power by the spin force and torque operators in this case are seen to vanish. The spin force operator on the sphere is calculated explicitly and its torque is shown to be equal to the rate of change of the kinetic orbital angular momentum operator, again with an anomalous part. This, along with the conservation of the total angular momentum, suggest that the spin force exerts a spin-dependent torque on the kinetic orbital angular momentum operator in order to conserve total angular momentum. The presence of an anomalous spin part in the kinetic orbital angular momentum operator gives rise to an oscillatory behavior similar to the \textit{Zitterbewegung}. It is suggested that the underlying physics that gives rise to the spin force and the \textit{Zitterbewegung} is one and the same in NRDO and in systems that manifest spin Hall effect.Comment: 7 page

Hamiltonian for a particle in a magnetic field on a curved surface in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates

The Schr\"odinger Hamiltonian of a spin zero particle as well as the Pauli Hamiltonian with spin-orbit coupling included of a spin one-half particle in electromagnetic fields that are confined to a curved surface embedded in a three-dimensional space spanned by a general Orthogonal Curvilinear Coordinate (OCC) are constructed. A new approach, based on the physical argument that upon squeezing the particle to the surface by a potential, then it is the physical gauge-covariant kinematical momentum operator (velocity operator) transverse to the surface that should be dropped from the Hamiltonian(s). In both cases,the resulting Hermitian gauge-invariant Hamiltonian on the surface is free from any reference to the component of the vector potential transverse to the surface, and the approach is completely gauge-independent. In particular, for the Pauli Hamiltonian these results are obtained exactly without any further assumptions or approximations. Explicit covariant plug-and-play formulae for the Schr\"odinger Hamiltonians on the surfaces of a cylinder, a sphere and a torus are derived.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, references adde

Hermitian spin-orbit Hamiltonians on a surface in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates: a new practical approach

The Hermitian Hamiltonian of a spin one-half particle with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) confined to a surface that is embedded in a three-dimensional space spanned by a general Orthogonal Curvilinear Coordinate (OCC) is constructed. A gauge field formalism, where the SOC is expressed as a non-Abelian $SU(2)$ gauge field is used. A new practical approach, based on the physical argument that upon confining the particle to the surface by a potential, then it is the physical Hermitian momentum operator transverse to the surface, rather than just the derivative with respect to the transverse coordinate that should be dropped from the Hamiltonian.Doing so, it is shown that the Hermitian Hamiltonian for SOC is obtained with the geometric potential and the geometric kinetic energy terms emerging naturally. The geometric potential is shown to represent a coupling between the transverse component of the gauge field and the mean curvature of the surface that replaces the coupling between the transverse momentum and the gauge field. The most general Hermitian Hamiltonian with linear SOC on a general surface embedded in any 3D OCC system is reported. Explicit plug-and-play formulae for this Hamiltonian on the surfaces of a cylinder, a sphere and a torus are given. The formalism is applied to the Rashba SOC in three dimensions (3D RSOC) and the explicit expressions for the surface Hamiltonians on these three geometries are worked out.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Effective polar potential in the central force Schrodinger equation

The angular part of the Schrodinger equation for a central potential is brought to the one-dimensional 'Schrodinger form' where one has a kinetic energy plus potential energy terms. The resulting polar potential is seen to be a family of potentials characterized by the square of the magnetic quantum number m. It is demonstrated that this potential can be viewed as a confining potential that attempts to confine the particle to the xy-plane, with a strength that increases with increasing m. Linking the solutions of the equation to the conventional solutions of the angular equation, i.e. the associated Legendre functions, we show that the variation in the spatial distribution of the latter for different values of the orbital angular quantum number l can be viewed as being a result of 'squeezing' with different strengths by the introduced 'polar potential'.Comment: This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in European Journal of Physic