Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Relativistic Wave Equations

Abstract

DIRAC's wave equation of a free electron may be expressed in the form rid where the matrices 14 ; (14; = 0, 1, 2, 3) obey the commutation relations The usual notation is used, and g14½ is the metric tensor for flat space-time given by g00 = 1, gll = g22 = g33 =1, the other components vanishing. The commutation relations (2) are such that from the first-order equation (1) one may deduce the second-order equation .

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

ELIEZER, C. Relativistic Wave Equations. Nature 159, 60 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159060a0

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159060a0

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing