{"paper":{"title":"On the Problem of Defining Charge Operators for the Dirac Quantum Field","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["math.MP","quant-ph"],"primary_cat":"math-ph","authors_text":"Pablo Costa Rico, Roderich Tumulka","submitted_at":"2024-07-12T09:44:31Z","abstract_excerpt":"It is well known how to define the operator $Q$ for the total charge (i.e., positron number minus electron number) on the standard Hilbert space of the second-quantized Dirac equation. Here we ask about operators $Q_A$ representing the charge content of a region $A\\subseteq \\mathbb{R}^3$ in 3d physical space. There is a natural formula for $Q_A$ but, as we explain, there are difficulties about turning it into a mathematically precise definition. First, $Q_A$ can be written as a series but its convergence seems hopeless. Second, we show for some choices of $A$ that if $Q_A$ could be defined the"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2407.09126","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2407.09126/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}