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Simulation of Zitterbewegung by modelling the Dirac equation in Metamaterials

Authors :
Ahrens, Sven
Jiang, Jun
Sun, Yong
Zhu, Shi-Yao
Source :
New Journal of Physics, vol. 17, article 113021 (2015)
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

We develop a dynamic description of an effective Dirac theory in metamaterials, in which the wavefunction is modeled by the corresponding electric and magnetic field in the metamaterial. This electro-magnetic field can be probed in the experimental setup, which means that the wavefunction of the effective theory is directly accessible by measurement. Our model is based on a plane wave expansion, which ravels the identification of Dirac spinors with single-frequency excitations of the electro-magnetic field in the metamaterial. The characteristic Zitterbewegung is shown to emerge in simulations of the effective theory and we verify this signature with an analytic solution.

Subjects

Subjects :
Quantum Physics

Details

Database :
arXiv
Journal :
New Journal of Physics, vol. 17, article 113021 (2015)
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.1505.05140
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/11/113021