The Dirac equation as a linear tensor equation for one component

Abstract The Dirac equation is one of the most fundamental equations of modern physics. It is a spinor equation, but some tensor equivalents of the equation were proposed previously. Those equivalents were either nonlinear or involved several components of the Dirac field. On the other hand, the author showed previously that the Dirac equation in electromagnetic field is equivalent to a fourth-order equation for one component of the Dirac spinor. The equivalency is used in this work to derive a linear tensor equivalent of the Dirac equation for just one component. This surprising result can be used in applications of the Dirac equation, for example, in general relativity or for lattice approximation of the Dirac field, and can improve our understanding of the Dirac equation.