Berry Phase, Lorentz Covariance, and Anomalous Velocity for Dirac and Weyl Particles

TL;DR

This paper develops a covariant Berry connection framework for Dirac particles, linking spin dynamics with relativistic covariance and exploring implications for massless particles and Lorentz symmetry.

Contribution

It introduces a covariant Berry connection that incorporates space-time components, unifying spin evolution with relativistic dynamics and addressing massless particle covariance issues.

Findings

Covariant Berry connection captures Thomas precession.

Contrasts with traditional Berry connection for spin-orbit coupling.

Identifies Lorentz covariance issues for massless particles.

Abstract

We consider the relation between spin and the Berry-phase contribution to the anomalous velocity of massive and massless Dirac particles. We extend the Berry connection that depends only on the spatial components of the particle momentum to one that depends on the the space and time components in a covariant manner. We show that this covariant Berry connection captures the Thomas-precession part of the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi spin evolution, and contrast it with the traditional (unitary, but not naturally covariant) Berry connection that describes spin-orbit coupling. We then consider how the covariant connection enters the classical relativistic dynamics of spinning particles due to Mathisson, Papapetrou and Dixon. We discuss the problems that arise with Lorentz covariance in the massless case, and trace them mathematically to a failure of the Wigner-translation part of the massless-particle little group to be an exact gauge symmetry in the presence of interactions, and physically to the fact that the measured position of a massless spinning particle is necessarily observer dependent.