ABOUT ZITTERBEWEGUNG AND ELECTRON-STRUCTURE

We start from the spinning electron model by Barut and Zanghi, which h as been recently translated into the Clifford algebra language. We ''c omplete'' such a translation, first of ah, by expressing in the Cliffo rd formalism a particular Barut-Zanghi (BZ) solution, which refers (at the classical limit) to an ''internal'' helical motion with a time-li ke speed (and is here shown to originate from the superposition of pos itive and negative frequency solutions of the Dirac equation). Then, w e show how to construct solutions of the Dirac equation describing hel ical motions with light-like speed, which meet very well the standard interpretation of the velocity operator in the Dirac equation theory ( and agree with the solution proposed by Hestenes, on the basis - howev er - of ad-hoc assumptions that are unnecessary in the present approac h). The above results appear to support the conjecture that the zitter bewegung motion (a helical motion, at the classical limit) is responsi ble for the electron spin.