Zitterbewegung of Bosons

Abstract

Zitterbewegung of massive and massless scalar bosons and a massive Proca (spin-1) boson is analyzed. The equations describing the evolution of the velocity and position of the scalar boson in the generalized Feshbach–Villars representation and the corresponding equations for the massive Proca particle in the Sakata–Taketani representation are equivalent to each other and to the well-known equations for the Dirac particle. However, Zitterbewegung does not appear in the Foldy–Wouthuysen representation. Since the position and velocity operators in the Foldy–Wouthuysen representation and their transforms to other representations are the quantum-mechanical counterparts of the corresponding classical variables, Zitterbewegung is not observable.