Dirac fermions in a magnetic-solenoid field

S. P. Gavrilov, D. M. Gitman, A. A. Smirnov, B. L. Voronov

Published 2003-08-14, updated 2004-04-16Version 2

We consider the Dirac equation with a magnetic-solenoid field (the superposition of the Aharonov--Bohm solenoid field and a collinear uniform magnetic field). Using von Neumann's theory of the self-adjoint extensions of symmetric operators, we construct a one-parameter family and a two-parameter family of self-adjoint Dirac Hamiltonians in the respective 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions. Each Hamiltonian is specified by certain asymptotic boundary conditions at the solenoid. We find the spectrum and eigenfunctions for all values of the extension parameters. We also consider the case of a regularized magnetic-solenoid field (with a finite-radius solenoid field component) and study the dependence of the eigenfunctions on the behavior of the magnetic field inside the solenoid. The zero-radius limit yields a concrete self-adjoint Hamiltonian for the case of the magnetic-solenoid field. In addition, we consider the spinless particle in the regularized magnetic-solenoid field. By the example of the radial Dirac Hamiltonian with the magnetic-solenoid field, we present an alternative, more simple and efficient, method for constructing self-adjoint extensions applicable to a wide class of singular differential operators.