Dear FQXi'ers,
There are now several models for 'particles' published in this essay competition. As my essay is based on the wave function induced by a real particle, I feel it's appropriate to at least sketch my own model of how real particles are created, and I do so here:
First, the century old assumption of a 'point'-like electron is clearly wrong.
Several models assume a 'quantum loop' of some sort, often associated with Zitterbewegung. There's no realistic explanation for why a particle circles with Compton radius at light speed, and it's a stretch to obtain known particle parameters based on the Zitterbewegung model.
My own model assumes an intense C-field -- easily encountered at the big bang or in LHC collisions -- where particles are created. A vortex in the field, combined with the relevant field equations describing the self-interacting behavior of the field, results in an ever-faster spinning, ever-tightening vortex in the same way that a skater spins faster when she pulls her arms in. The significance of the Compton radius is that **this is the point where the vortex 'wall' reaches the speed of light**.
Instead of assuming that some 'point-like' particle races around a 'Compton radius' circle at the speed of light, I assume that a new phenomenon occurs here -- the creation of charge (the C-field, or gravito-magnetic field, is uncharged). This charge adds a new outward-based self-repulsion force to the inward directed centripetal force acting on the mass [energy] of the vortex wall moving in the original field [plus self-induced dipole field], and this self-repulsive force provides the limiting condition that prevents the vortex from following it's natural path which is to shrink to an infinitely dense 'point'. Instead, the charged vortex wall resists being compressed to a 'point' and the electron radius stabilizes at radius about 10^-18 meters.
It has been known for 80 years that the electron must "spin faster than the speed of light" to account for the magnetic moment but no one has ever explained why this is forbidden. Nowhere in the relevant equations does 'c' show up to limit this action. In fact, if the skater could pull her arms in to a radius approaching zero, she too would spin faster than the speed of light. If angular momentum is conserved, then the speed is determined by the radial arm -- there is no 'natural' limit. It is *NOT* the same as 'boosting' linear velocity to the speed of light. And the spin frequency is identically equal to the Zitterbewegung frequency!
My key assumption is that electric charge appears when the vortex wall reaches the speed of light at the Compton radius. Then everything else, including the fine structure constant, falls out. All particles are automatically 'indistinguishable' since there is no possible "marking" that could be seen on a particle spinning faster than light. This stable particle possesses a finite radius, a spinning charge that induces the correct magnetic moment, spin-one half and the particle spin provides the Zitterbewegung frequency. I present this process in great detail in The Chromodynamics War where I also treat all of the other particles of the Standard Model [except the Higgs].
A number of recent experiments have shown that the de Broglie model of real particle plus real-field-based wave function provides the best explanation of the observed results. To see how such a non-point electron induces a wave function, please read my essay [top of page].
In summary, electron properties derive from structure and it's high time that physicists focus on this structure. This is inconvenient from the perspective of point-based quantum field theories and QCD, but these theories have a number of problems.
Edwin Eugene Klingman