The Rationale for the Present Book Perhaps the most critical problem facing present-day particle physicistsis to delineate the relationship between classical and quantum systems. This relationship has many facets. Particle-waveduality is one. The concept of the point particle is another. And theconcept of particle mass is yet another. The electron, as the lightest of the charged particles, represents a fundamental "ground state,"and many of the essential problems in the murky area between the domainsofclassical and quantum physics can be brought into focus by studyingjust this one particle. Thus the present book is centered on questions that arise in connection with the electron, and in particular with its mass, which has remained an unsolved, and indeed almost unexplored, mystery. Each student ofphysics, beginner and professional alike, has to fashion for himselfa way of thinking about the electron. If, after reading this book, the reader views this topic somewhat differently than before, the efforts of the author will have been amply rewarded. When physicists were confronted with the properties of the electron, they made a conceptualleap into the unknown: they concluded that the electron does not obey classical laws with respect to mechanics (as connected to the spin of the electron), and also with respect to electrodynamics (as connected to the magnetic moment of the electron).

This book is centered on a surprising Tevatron and LHC experimental result, the accurate equality of gauge boson and top quark energy Ew + Ez = Et. The ramifications of this unanticipated result extend down to the lower energies, and lead to two new elementary particle paradigms. The first is the use of energies E rather than masses m for analysing particle excitation patterns, where E =mc2. The second is the recognition that ground-state particle energies are generated in the form of quantized energy packets that are produced in ' -boost' energy excitations, where -1 ~137 is the fine structure constant. Repeated -boosts form a 'reservoir' of energy packets, which merge and reproduce the quantized energies of the various particle and quark ground-state configurations. An -generated energy excitation path extends upward from the electron to the top quark t. The steps in this path, which contain two -boosts, combine coherently to give the energy equation Eelectron x 18/ 2 = Et, which is accurate to 0.3%. A branching energy path reproduces the energy of the bottom quark b to 0.1%.Particle energies and lifetimes are conjugate quantities, and the -quantized particle energies are reflected in -quantized particle mean lifetimes, as revealed by lifetime plots on a logarithmic -spaced grid. The accurate factor-of-137 spacings between the classical electron radius, Compton radius, and Bohr orbit radius suggest introducing both a radial and a mass dependence into , which leads to an equation for the transformation of Coulomb energy into electron non-electromagnetic mass. The electron spin and magnetic moment are reproduced by a Compton-sized relativistically spinning sphere (RSS). The anomalous electron magnetic moment is also accounted for by the RSS, in response to Richard Feynman's 1961 Challenge to provide such an explanation. The mathematics used here is straightforward, and the calculations are guided by fits to the elementary particle RPP energy and lifetime data bases, which are provided here in Appendices A and B.

This book offers a new look at the electron. It was the first elementary particle discovered, is probably one of the simplest, and yet is possibly one of the most misunderstood. The author presents here a straightforward classical model that accurately reproduces the main spectroscopic features of the electron, and also its principal quantum aspects. The key to this model is the relativistically spinning sphere, RSS, which has been clamoring for recognition for decades. Although its electrical charge is point-like, the electron itself is Compton-sized, and is composed mainly of non-electromagnetic "mechanical" matter. The bridge between the electron and the other elementary particles is provided by the fine structure constant alpha 1/137, as manifested in the factor-of-137 spacings between the classical electron radius, electron Compton radius, and Bohr orbit radius. An expanded form of the constant alpha leads to equations that define the transformation of electromagnetic energy into electron mass/energy, and, via the electron doorway, to the formation of higher-mass lepton and hadron ground states. An alpha-quantized mass-generation grid extends accurately from the electron all the way to the top quark t, and leads to a corresponding alpha-quantized particle lifetime grid. The mathematics used in these studies is standard, and the calculations are guided by fits to the experimental elementary particle data. This book is written for all scientists who are interested in recent developments in fundamental particle physics.