In the early history of spinors it became evident that a single undotted covariant elementary spinor can represent a plane wave of light. Further study of that relation shows that plane electromagnetic waves satisfy the Weyl equation, in a way that indicates the correct spin angular momentum. On the subatomic scale the Weyl equation discloses more detail than the vector equations. The spinor and vector equations are equivalent when applied to plane waves, and more generally (in the absence of sources) (...) on the large scale when the spinors are incoherent. (shrink)

Spinor equations, previously found valid and interesting in dealing with plane waves of light, are applied to spherical waves. It is found that the spinors pertaining to light do not form outgoing spherical waves, as the vectors do, but they can form standing spherical waves, which the vectors usually cannot. The spinors disclose details (“hidden variables”) which are hidden from the accepted theories of the subatomic scale.

A null 4-vector ε°σμε, based on Dirac's relativistic electron equation, is shown explicitly for a plane wave and various Coulomb states. This 4-vector constitutes a mechanical “model” for the electron in those states, and expresses the important spinor quantities represented conventionally byn, f, g, m, j, κ,1, ands. The model for a plane wave agrees precisely with the relation between velocity and phase gradient customarily used in quantum theory, but the models for Coulomb states contradict that relation.

Whittaker studied Dirac's equation, using prequantum mathematics, and found oscillating vectors corresponding to Schrödinger'sZitterbewegung. An extension of his study, without added assumptions or speculation, reveals the speedc associated at any instant with a direction that can be defined by specification of the Dirac spinor. This direction is hidden from quantum theory because that theory violates the physical principle that coherent amplitudes of the same kind must be added before quadratic quantities are formed from them. Two-component equations are formed from Dirac's (...) four-component equation and are found to contain information not explicit in Dirac's equation. (shrink)