Physics education research, electronic materials, and the musings of Christopher Moore, Ph.D.

Abstract:
A theory is proposed for electrons and protons as standing electromagnetic waves.  The wave format gives an explanation for the charge of the particles and quantum spin.  For the electric charge the amplitude of the wave is between 0 and 2e giving an average charge of e.  Electron spin is defined by the magnetic wave in the standing electromagnetic (EM) wave.

The theory proposes that the nucleus of an atom is not a rigid body but instead is composed of electrons and protons in motion that can be superimposed.  This motion offers an alternative explanation for the weak nuclear force.  The superposition of electron and proton is used to define a neutron.  Mitigation for the need of the strong nuclear force is offered because a neutron proton pair is considered to be two protons and an electron shielding each other from the coulomb force.

It is proposed that the classic Stern-Gerlach experiment be conducted with higher accuracy using particle detectors to add or remove weight to this theory.  The expected result from this theory is a sinusoidal distribution and not a hard split as is commonly interpreted from the results.

An imperfect 3D computer simulation is provided to aid in understanding, written in Vpython.

A powerpoint version of this idea is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/danielcard … erview.ppt

Physicists have known for sometime that the electron is a standing wave but do not have a popular theory for the exact format of that wave. 1

Standing wave review:
A standing wave does not travel in the medium but stays in place.  Examples of standing waves are the mat of a trampoline, a guitar string, the top of a drum, etc.

Physical analogy of the wave:
Imagine two trampolines laying sideways, laying side by side each other, connected via a blue pipe.  The trampoline on the left represents the electric wave and the one on the right represents the magnetic wave.
Electric wave Magnetic wave
The blue pipe represents the coupling found between the electric and magnetic waves described by Maxwell's equations.  If you imagine moving the pipe back and forth, you have two standing waves tied together.

Electric wave   Magnetic wave
With this animation you can see that the amplitude for the waves does not have to center around zero.

According to Maxwell’s equations a changing magnetic field will give rise to an electric field that apposes the change.  The converse is also true: a changing electric field will give rise to a magnetic field that apposes the change.  This is similar to the trampoline analogy.  One trampoline fights a change in the other trampoline amplitude.

Why electric charge in the standing wave?
The electric wave oscillates between 0 and 2e charge, with an average charge of e, the elementary charge.  The magnetic field stops the electric field from going lower than zero amplitude.  Refer to the animation above.  The amplitude never goes negative for the electric wave.

Electron and proton spin is caused by the standing waves magnetic field oscillating.
The frequency of these waves is the same as needed during pair production.  For the electron this is 2.47e+20 Hz.
Remember the Stern-Gerlach experiment that was used to show that electrons had an intrinsic property of spin.

If the proposed theory is correct than the split seen in the Stern-Gerlach experiment must be caused by a sinusoidal distribution, rather than a hard split.

Notice in the animation that most of the dots are at the top and bottom because that is where the amplitude rate of change is the slowest and in the middle there are the fewest dots because amplitude rate of change is the highest.
This can be verified with a more precise Stern-Gerlach experiment using particle detectors.  Do you know if this has been done before?

In other words, electrons don’t have an intrinsic property of +- ½ half spin.  Instead they have a phase that there "spin"  or magnetic wave height is in.  The Pauli exclusion principle still holds.  Electrons must have opposite phase to be in the same orbital.

Strong and weak nuclear force:
The weak nuclear force was proposed to explain beta decay.  In the standing wave model theory the nucleus consists of particles (same as standing waves) that are in motion.  Electrons are traveling close to the speed of light.
Beta decay occurs because the motion of electrons and protons becomes unstable for some configurations of atoms.

Animation showing concept of neutron and proton being two protons and a superimposed electron:


The strong nuclear force was proposed to explain why protons which repel each other stay stable in the nucleus of the atom.  In the proposed theory neutrons are just superimposed protons and electrons.  An electron between two protons will shield each other from the repulsive coulomb force.  This mitigates the need for a strong nuclear force.
Other factors that may mitigate the need for the strong nuclear force:
* Magnetic fields caused by charge times velocity (qv) and spin need to be taken into account
* Size of the nucleus is not determined.  Perhaps protons are further away from each other than current experiments suggest
* Electrons in an orbital may travel through nucleus regularly increasing stability

Computer Simulation:
Written in Vpython. Follow the instructions in the following web page to install python and vpython: http://vpython.org/contents/download_windows.html .   Is intended as a guide for understanding, not to prove the theory because it has a number of known and unknown issues.  Download latest version at: http://sites.google.com/site/danielcard … rticles.py  The black background animation above was made from the simulator.

Biggest issue in the simulation is a digital energy gain problem.
Energy damping has been added, just a quick and dirty hack.

Another issue with the simulation is that accelerated charged particles radiate.  After the simulator accuracy is increased the path traveled by electrons needs to form a closed loop with in an even multiple of the wave period.  This goes along with known specific energy levels that electron orbitals have.  It is theorized that under this condition an accelerated charged particle does not radiate. 1

Simulator user guide:
Run the simulator with a parameter of the number of particles
2 – hydrogen or neutron
4 – heavy hydrogen
6 – tritium
8 – helium, with two neutrons
Etc.
Example: python particles.py 2

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) - 1
What are the size of these waves?
* What size does any wave have?
* Waves have an area of influence
* The further away from the center of a wave the less force exerted by the wave
These same answers can be applied to the size of an electron or proton.

FAQ 2 – Standing Waves
What are the boundary conditions?  Don’t all standing waves have boundary conditions?
* Yes, except this one.  There is a physical analogy.
* Again remember the two trampolines.  If you make the trampolines bigger and bigger the pipe between them will make a standing wave, but there are no boundary conditions, just an area of influence, aka field.

Standing waves only would apply to bound particles; major portions of the universe are made up of free particles.
* The theory is that particles are standing waves, whether they are bound to atoms or not.
* Can devise a number of experiments to prove or disprove this notion. For example if one can see the frequency of the electric charge changing at the proposed electron rate of 2.47e+20 Hz, oscillating between 0 and 2e charge.

FAQ 3 – Quantum Mechanics
How does this relate to Quantum Mechanics?
* The theory is new, so from that perspective it is outside of quantum mechanics, but other than that there is nothing that contradicts with base quantum mechanics that I know of.

FAQ 4 – Level of physics knowledge Needed
90% of what is discussed in this theory is learned in first year physics
The parts about quantum spin are learned in advance physics, usually second year physics
Summary: only basic physics knowledge is needed to understand conceptually this theory

FAQ 5 - Simulation
What is the point of the simulation?
* Attempts to implement the theory
* Electrons and protons are randomly placed closed together
* If the theory is correct then the electrons and protons should form the way atoms exist

FAQ 6 - Equations
Simulation is based on a set of equations you put together and you are using numerical methods. So it would be good to see those equations as well as an explanation of how you arrived to them
* Only used known equations in the physics world. Mostly just Maxwell's equations.
* What is new is that the electric charge of the electron and proton oscillate, between 0 and 2e charge. Also intrinsic quantum spin oscillates between 0 and 1 spin.
* Increased the magnetic spin of the proton from what is known, but not sure it has a good or bad effect on the simulation.
* Since the particles are waves how the equations are applied maybe unique, since I'm allowing proton and electron to superimpose for example.
* Documented every equation used in the simulation, with references to wikipedia.
* So I didn't invent any new equation, just applied existing known physics laws.

FAQ 7 – Predict Experiments
You will eventually have to make predictions about an experiment or a set of experiments where your theory can be validated as superior to what is currently accepted
* Yes, I have done that and can do more. First example is the split in the stern-gerlach experiment. Predicting the split is due to a sinusoidal distribution, current thinking is that it is just a hard split, ie bipolar or +/-. This can be verified using more precise experiment using particle detector.
* Another experiment is that the charge oscillation, between 0 and -2e, of the electron should be able to be observed directly at a frequency of 2.47e+20 Hz.


A powerpoint version of this theory is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/danielcard … erview.ppt

Last edited by DanielCar (2010-02-15 05:37:09)