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Abstract

Different operators have been suggested in the literature to describe the electron's spin degree of freedom within the relativistic Dirac theory. We compare concrete predictions of the various proposed relativistic spin operators in different physical situations. In particular, we investigate the so-called Pauli, Foldy-Wouthuysen, Czachor, Frenkel, Chakrabarti, Pryce, and Fradkin-Good spin operators. We demonstrate that when a quantum system interacts with electromagnetic potentials the various spin operators predict different expectation values. This is explicitly illustrated for the scattering dynamics at a potential step and in a standing laser field and also for energy eigenstates of hydrogenic ions. Therefore, one may distinguish between the proposed relativistic spin operators experimentally.