In the chapter on The Electron, the question was:
For what reasons is an electron identified as a fundamental particle?
An obvious answer is that we cannot reduce an electron in other fundamental particles.
Even so, then there is still the question: even if it is impossible to reduce an electron,
why is it assumed to be a point particle?
For the answer to this question, we have to go back to the years in which the debate on this question was under discussion within the scientific community.
In these years, around 1900, Henry Poincaré raised the issue that if an electron would have a spatial extension with some matter, then it would risk to explode due to the dispersed electric charge. This electric charge was assumed to be isotropic.
As per illustration:
Poincaré proposed that counteractive forces are necessary to maintain the electron’s spherical shape.
However, Hendrik Lorentz questioned the ball shape of the electron. An electron can accelerate up to relativistic speed and deform in the direction of its motion, as illustrated below:
The electron is undeniably crucial for understanding particle physics. However, at that time, it seemed that the best approach was to consider the electron as a point particle with no spatial extension. If this were the case, both problems would become irrelevant.
The proposed solution seems like an attempt to address a problem that isn’t fully understood. Even Albert Einstein, who supported this ‘solution,’ remained perplexed by the nature of electrons throughout his life. At the end of his life, Einstein still couldn’t comprehend how light exchanged energy with electrons. He once remarked, “I would like to know what an electron is.”
Numerous suggestions have been proposed to address the questions raised by Poincaré and Lorentz, but none have altered the outcome so far. Common sense dictates that the assumption that the electron has to be a point particle remains the best explanation.
The Dutch Paradigm will address this issue by challenging the underlying assumptions that cause the stated problems.
The answer is that the electron is a construct of a photon and a neutrino, which can interfere at gamma frequency into an electron. This interference is possible due to the particle/wave duality of both the photon and the neutrino.
We, therefore, need a better understanding of this particle/wave duality, to start with a photon as a result of the way the universe started.