Dirac's Equation and the Sea of Negative Energy, Part 1
Don L. Hotson
Dirac's wave equation is a relativistic generalization of the Schr?dinger wave equation. In 1934 this brilliantly successful equation was shorn of half of its solutions by a questionable bit of mathematical slight-of-hand. Because it was ?politically correct,? this bit of juggling became the accepted interpretation. However, recent developments have shown the very basis of this mathematical trick to be invalid, in that it would involve massive violations of conservation. A reevaluation is therefore warranted. The Schr?dinger wave equation has been said to ?contain most of physics and all of chemistry.? Since Dirac's equation is a relativistic generalization of this already generally applicable wave equation, in formulating it Dirac expected that its solutions would describe ?everything that waves.? Since all matter and energy evolve as waves, Dirac thought his equation would be a unitary ?theory of everything.? However, the discovery of several new particles and peer criticism resulting in the truncation of the equation frustrated this expectation, and it is generally known at present as ?Dirac's equation of the electron.?
