1307.2201 (J. Lemmon)

Theory of the mass and charge of the electron    [PDF]

J. Lemmon

This paper is concerned with a new way of thinking about the mass and charge of the electron in quantum field theory. The main idea is that the ultraviolet divergences that we encounter in the quantum field theories of the standard model, when interpreted appropriately, have a deep physical significance that leads to new relationships among the masses and coupling constants of the elementary particles. This new interpretation is based on the assumption of a physical ultraviolet cutoff and an ansatz, motivated by the idea that self-mass creates additional self-mass ad infinitum, in which the perturbation series for the self-mass of the electron is restructured as an infinite series of terms that can be formally summed. The series is defined by a simply rule that is applied repetitively and is developed using the usual Feynman rules. When applied to the electroweak theory, the formally summed expression results in a self-consistency equation for the electron mass that (at the lowest level of approximation) simply explains the existence of three generations of charged leptons with a mass hierarchy and a value of the fine structure constant remarkably similar to what we observe. Implications of these ideas for quarks and neutrinos are briefly discussed.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.2201