Effects of Dirac's Negative Energy Sea on Quantum Numbers

Abstract

One route towards understanding both fractional charges and chiral anomalies delves into Dirac's negative energy sea. Usually we think of Dirac's negative energy sea as an unphysical construct, invented to render quantum field theory physically acceptable by hiding the negative energy solutions. I suggest that in fact physical consequences can be drawn from Dirac's construction.

arXiv commentEmail correspondence to [email protected] ; 10 pages using Plain.TeX and BoxedEPS macros for 3 PostScript figures. Dirac Prize Lecture delivered at Trieste, Italy, in March 1999

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