Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2016) 131: 37
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2016-16037-3

Regular Article

Zitterbewegung, internal momentum and spin of the circular travelling-wave electromagnetic model electron

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Park Road, 45550, Tarlai Kalan, Islamabad, Pakistan

^* e-mail: masif@comsats.edu.pk

Received: 8 October 2015
Revised: 14 December 2015
Accepted: 21 December 2015
Published online: 17 February 2016

Abstract

This study demonstrates that an electron, going round, with tangential velocity c , in a circle of radius equal to half the reduced Compton wavelength of the electron, has Dirac-delta-like internal momentum (). The circular momentum and energy u emanate from the circular Dirac-delta-type rotating monochromatic electromagnetic (EM) wave, which travels itself in another circle having radius equal to the reduced Compton wavelength of the electron. The phenomenon of Zitterbewegung and the spin of the electron are natural consequences of the model. The spin is associated with the internal circulating momentum of the electron in terms of a four-component spinor, which leads to the Dirac equation linking the EM electron model with quantum-mechanical theory. Our model accurately explains the experimental results of the electron channelling experiment (P. Catillon et al., Found. Phys. 38, 659 (2008)), in which the momentum resonance is observed at 161.784MeV/c corresponding to a Zitterbewegung frequency of 80.874MeV/c electron beam.