Eur. Phys. J. C (2007) 50: 673-678
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-007-0222-x

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Chiral oscillations in terms of the zitterbewegung effect

Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, UNICAMP, PO Box 6165, 13083-970, Campinas, SP, Brasil

^* e-mail: alexeb@ifi.unicamp.br

Received: 18 January 2006
Revised: 22 December 2006
Published online: 20 February 2007

Abstract

We seek the immediate description of chiral oscillations in terms of the trembling motion described by the velocity (Dirac) operator α. By taking into account the complete set of Dirac equation solutions, which results in a free propagating Dirac wave packet composed by positive and negative frequency components, we report about the well-established zitterbewegung results and indicate how chiral oscillations can be expressed in terms of the well-known quantum oscillating variables. We conclude with the interpretation of chiral oscillations as very rapid position oscillation projections onto the longitudinally decomposed direction of the motion.