Electron radius/scattering experiments

[granpa]

could someone provide some links to some of the experiments that establish the maximum radius of the electron. preferably with some explanation of how it works and what the raw data was. google is not much use.

but not experiments like the penning trap that just measure g_. (gyromagnetic ratio).

 

[fatra2]

hi there,

You cannot think of the electron as an Earth like particle spinning around the Sun. Therefore, some experiments are underway to determine more precisely the shape, size, and charge distribution of the electrons

Cheers

 

[Bob_for_short]

could someone provide some links to some of the experiments that establish the maximum radius of the electron. preferably with some explanation of how it works and what the raw data was.

As the electron is always in interaction with the quantized electromagnetic field, its charge is quantum mechanically smeared. See my publications on that: http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.2635 and http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.4416.

The smearing size may be infinite or finite, depending on external binding force. If there is no binding force, the size is infinite. That means there may not be elastic scattering. Any scattering is inelastic - you "break" the compound system initial state. You excite the internal degrees of freedom - photon oscillators. It is known that any scattering is accompanied with the soft radiation. The inclusive picture gives the Rutherford cross section as if the electron stayed at the center of inertia and were point-like.

The classical finite size, whatever it is, is misleading since even "point-like" electron is needed an infinitely long "hands" to interact, so strictly speaking the finite size notion is applicable only to neural bodies.

Bob.

 

[Norman]

I believe the typical arguments about the electron size are from penning trap experiments as they provide a more accurate determination.

For the scattering side of the argument, you might like to check out this paper: http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v30/i3/p515_1 by Bender et al.

 

[RonL]

could someone provide some links to some of the experiments that establish the maximum radius of the electron. preferably with some explanation of how it works and what the raw data was. google is not much use.

but not experiments like the penning trap that just measure g_. (gyromagnetic ratio).

I,m sure this is in no way quite what your asking about, but to me it is impressive and helps to make a picture in my mind, that orbital or wave, the final object is a group of spheres and they look so much like corn on the cob, I'm getting hungry looking at it.
Seriously I thought the link might in some way lead to some other information you can use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atomic_resolution_Au100.JPG