Zitterbewegung at the level of quantum field theory

Abstract

Traditionally, the zitterbewegung (ZB) of the Dirac electron has just been studied at the level of quantum mechanics. Seeing that the fact that an old interest in ZB has recently been rekindled by the investigations on spintronic, graphene, and superconducting systems, etc., in this paper we present a quantum-field-theory investigation on ZB and obtain the conclusion that, the ZB of an electron arises from the influence of virtual electron-positron pairs (or vacuum fluctuations) on the electron.