Implications of Extended Models of the Electron for Particle Theory and Cosmology

Abstract

Although quantum theory has been very successful in the mathematical description of molecules, atoms and atomic nuclei, it has failed to resolve the conceptual problem posed by the wave-particle duality of fundamental entities such as the electron and photon. As long as these entities are regarded as infinitely small points the problem of the origin of mass, the reason for the observed wide variety of particles, and the connection between electromagnetic, nuclear and gravitational interactions cannot be resolved. Moreover, since in the present standard model of an expanding universe its initial size must have been of the order of the observed nuclear particles or smaller, such questions as to the nature of dark matter and the origin of the large-scale structures and motions in the very early universe can also not be answered without a more detailed understanding of the wave-nature of particles. It will be argued in the present paper that the crisis in fundamental physical theory and cosmology can be resolved along the lines originally suggested by Bohm, Weinstein, Vigier and others according to which the electron is regarded as a stable, rotating, extended structure describable in hydrodynamic terms similar to a vortex tube that can be excited to high states of internal motion such as envisioned more recently by superstring theory so as to account for the massses of mesons and other massive particles. Just as in the case of superstring theory, the existence of charges can then be explained as arising from the scission of a closed string or vortex ring under the action of zero-point vibrations as in the analogous case of the toroidal geons investigated by Wheeler, each of the ends becoming the extended source of an electric field contributing a fractional charge of one-half, held together to give integral charges by a strong local Poincare-type cohesive or gravitational force as suggested by Motz. Such a strong local space-curvature or gravitational force may explain the quantum potential of Bohm, since a high local curvature constant is found to be a necessary consequence of the evolution of matter in a series of scission processes from a Lemaitre-type 'primeval atom' consisting of a highly excited relativistic state of the electron - positron system originally developed to provide a model for the neutral pimeson and subsequently found to provide molecular-type models for all hadrons.