Thursday, 6 June 2013

A suggestive bogus argument  over Spin-statistics theorem

Consider the two-field operator product
 R(\pi)\phi(x) \phi(-x) \,
where R is the matrix which rotates the spin polarization of the field by 180 degrees when one does a 180 degree rotation around some particular axis. The components of \phi are not shown in this notation, \phi has many components, and the matrix R mixes them up with one another.
In a non-relativistic theory, this product can be interpreted as annihilating two particles at positions x \  and -x \  with polarizations which are rotated by π (180°) relative to each other. Now rotate this configuration by π around the origin. Under this rotation, the two points x \ and -x \  switch places, and the two field polarizations are additionally rotated by a \pi \ . So you get
 R(2\pi)\phi(-x) R(\pi)\phi(x) \,
which for integer spin is equal to
 \phi(-x) R(\pi)\phi(x) \
and for half integer spin is equal to
 - \phi(-x) R(\pi)\phi(x) \,
(proved here). Both the operators \pm \phi(-x) R(\pi)\phi(x) still annihilate two particles at x and - x. Hence we claim to have shown that, with respect to particle states: R(\pi)\phi(x) \phi(-x) = \begin{cases}\phi(-x) R(\pi)\phi(x) & \text{ for integral spins}, \\ -\phi(-x) R(\pi)\phi(x) & \text{ for half-integral spins}.\end{cases} So exchanging the order of two appropriately polarized operator insertions into the vacuum can be done by a rotation, at the cost of a sign in the half integer case.
This argument by itself does not prove anything like the spin/statistics relation. To see why, consider a nonrelativistic spin 0 field described by a free Schrödinger equation. Such a field can be anticommuting or commuting. To see where it fails, consider that a nonrelativistic spin 0 field has no polarization, so that the product above is simply:
 \phi(-x) \phi(x)\,
In the nonrelativistic theory, this product annihilates two particles at x and −x, and has zero expectation value in any state. In order to have a nonzero matrix element, this operator product must be between states with two more particles on the right than on the left:
 \langle 0| \phi(-x) \phi(x) |\psi\rangle \,
Performing the rotation, all that you learn is that rotating the 2-particle state |\psi\rangle gives the same sign as changing the operator order. This is no information at all, so this argument does not prove anything.

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