Quantum Charge as a Particle/Antiparticle Label

Abstract

We show that the concept of particles and antiparticles is related to the Weyl-Heisenberg group $W\!H_3$. Its generators are the position operators $\hat x^a$, the momentum operators $\hat p_a$, and the central element $Q_{\sf{v}}$, which defines a subgroup U(1)$_{\sf v}$ of $W\!H_3$. We show that the wave functions have a charge relative to the group U(1)$_{\sf{v}}$ equal to either $q_+=1/\hbar$ (particle $ψ_+$) or $q_-=-1/\hbar$ (antiparticle $ψ_-$). We call these eigenvalues of the operator $Q_{\sf{v}}$ quantum charges: $Q_{\sf{v}}ψ_\pm^{}=q_\pm^{}ψ_\pm^{}$. The wave functions $ψ_+$ and $ψ_-$ belong to the Hilbert spaces $\mathcal{H}_+$ and $\mathcal{H}_-$, on which unitarily inequivalent representations $π_\hbar$ and $π_{-\hbar}$ of the Weyl-Heisenberg group $W\!H_3$ are defined. These representations are related to each other by the antilinear charge conjugation operator $\hat C$, which maps $\mathcal{H}_+, q_+$ to $\mathcal{H}_-, q_-$. Charges $q_\pm^{}$ are intrinsic characteristics of the wave functions $ψ_\pm^{}$, similar to spin and electric charge. The wave function possesses one of these charges, $q_+$ or $q_-$, prior to the specification of any equations. We show that negative probabilities/energies and the Klein paradox in Klein-Gordon and Dirac theories are consequences of the violation of U(1)$_{\sf v}$-invariance in these theories. Restoring this invariance separates particle and antiparticles and eliminates all paradoxes at the level of first-quantized relativistic theories.