Twisted Localized Solutions of the Dirac Equation: Hopfion-like States of Relativistic Electrons

Abstract: All known solutions of the Dirac equation describing states of electrons endowed with angular momentum are very far from our notion of the electron as a spinning charged bullet because they are not localized in the direction of propagation. We present here analytic exact solutions, eigenstates of the total angular momentum component $M_z$, that come very close to this notion. These new solutions of the Dirac equation have also intricate topological properties similar to the hopfion solutions of the Maxwell equations.