TY - JOUR
T1 - Stability of relativistic matter with magnetic fields
AU - Lieb, Elliott H.
AU - Siedentop, Heinz
AU - Solovej, Jan Philip
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Stability of matter with Coulomb forces has been proved for nonrelativistic dynamics, including arbitrarily large magnetic fields, and for relativistic dynamics without magnetic fields. In both cases stability requires that the fine structure constant α be not too large. It was unclear what would happen for both relativistic dynamics and magnetic fields, or even how to formulate the problem clearly. We show that the use of the Dirac operator allows both effects, provided the filled negative energy “sea” is defined properly. The use of the free Dirac operator to define the negative levels leads to catastrophe for any α, but the use of the Dirac operator with magnetic field leads to stability.
AB - Stability of matter with Coulomb forces has been proved for nonrelativistic dynamics, including arbitrarily large magnetic fields, and for relativistic dynamics without magnetic fields. In both cases stability requires that the fine structure constant α be not too large. It was unclear what would happen for both relativistic dynamics and magnetic fields, or even how to formulate the problem clearly. We show that the use of the Dirac operator allows both effects, provided the filled negative energy “sea” is defined properly. The use of the free Dirac operator to define the negative levels leads to catastrophe for any α, but the use of the Dirac operator with magnetic field leads to stability.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.1785
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.1785
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:4243635384
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 79
SP - 1785
EP - 1788
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 10
ER -