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In particle physics, helicity is the projection of the angular momentum onto the direction of momentum. The angular momentum is the sum of an orbital momentum and a spin , and by definition its relation to linear momentum is : so its component in the direction of is zero. Thus, helicity is also the projection of the spin onto the direction of momentum. This quantity is conserved. Because the eigenvalues of spin with respect to an axis have discrete values, the eigenvalues of helicity are also discrete. For a particle of spin , the eigenvalues of helicity are , , ..., −. The measured helicity of a spin particle will range from − to +. For massless , helicity is equivalent to the chirality operator multiplied by /2. By contrast, for massive particles, distinct chirality states (e.g., as occur in the weak interaction charges) have both positive and negative helicity components, in ratios proportional to the mass of the particle. ==Little group== In dimensions, the little group for a massless particle is the double cover of SE(2). This has unitary representations which are invariant under the SE(2) "translations" and transform as under a SE(2) rotation by . This is the helicity representation. There is also another unitary representation which transforms non-trivially under the SE(2) translations. This is the ''continuous spin'' representation. In dimensions, the little group is the double cover of SE() (the case where is more complicated because of anyons, etc.). As before, there are unitary representations which don't transform under the SE() "translations" (the "standard" representations) and "continuous spin" representations. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Helicity (particle physics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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