Spin 1/2 as propagation on a lattice with symmetries modulo gauge transformations

Abstract

Relativistic spin 1/2, as represented by Susskind's 1977 discretization of the Dirac equation on a spatial lattice, is shown to follow from basic, not typically relativistic but essentially quantum theoretic assumptions: that position eigenstates propagate to nearest neighbours while respecting lattice symmetries modulo gauge transformations.

Comments: 15 pages, no figures