Zitterbewegung and quantum jumps in relativistic Schrödinger theory (Q1591671): Difference between revisions

The so-called ``Zitterbewegung'' (trembling motion) is a well-known phenomenon in Dirac's theory of a relativistic particle. Nowadays it is understood as a quantum effect of truly relativistic nature. Since this effect is described within Dirac's theory one usually believes that it is related to spin. The main issue of the article at hand is to convince the reader that this is not true, actually. For this the authors introduce a new kind of relativistic wave equation, which is somehow ``between'' the Klein-Gordon and the Dirac equation. It is shown that this new wave equation also takes into account the internal Zitterbewegung of a particle, though it might be spinless. Finally, the authors discuss their description of the Zitterbewegung when the particle couples to gravity. As a model they discuss the specific case of a Robertson-Walker spacetime and conclude that the trembling motion of the particle ``becomes physically evident by the corresponding trembling of the size of the universe''. The general technique used to obtain their results refers to the ``relativistic Schrödinger theory''. The paper is then arranged as follows: The authors start with presenting two different viewpoints of the Zitterbewegung. Next they generalize the relativistic Schrödinger theory, such that it also admits real solutions of the corresponding wave equation. This generalization is then used to study the Zitterbewegung. Finally, they discuss the above mentioned coupling to a Robertson-Walker universe.