Relativistic Quantum Theory of Many-Electron Systems

Abstract

In this chapter, we review the development of the relativistic semi-classical theory of many-electron systems, in which the quantized matter field is described by the Dirac equation, while electromagnetic interactions are treated classically in the framework of Maxwell’s electrodynamics. The long-standing conceptual issues like prolapse and the Brown–Ravenhall desease are revisited, reference to the recently developed exact-decoupling approaches for spinor representations are provided, and selected results are discussed.