Re: The Electron

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

        Depending upon what you mean by "intrinsic structure" I may
totally disagree.  The important point that is lost in this answer is that
such terms are completely undefined until you relate them to specific
measurements.
        Here's a hint.  Does a Nitrogen atom have an intrinsic structure?
Describe an experiment that discloses that structure (however you define
the term).  (There are probably many possible answers to this question,
but for the canonical answer, think Rutherford).


On Thu, 13 Nov 2003, Hugh Haskell wrote (in part):


        I agree with the next sentence, by the way, but would add
electromagnetism to "matter".

> Sorry, but if you want to understand the electron, it has to be in
> terms of its interactions with other matter (including other
> electrons), and for that, due to the observed property of electron
> spin, the exclusion principle is essential. Pauli understood this
> even before Schroedinger and Heisenberg  invented their equations.

        BUT

> You earlier asked if the electron had any intrinsic structure, and
> the answer is that we don't know for sure, but there is at present no
> evidence that there is any, and, at least as deeply as we have been
> able to probe, there is evidence that it doesn't, so the current
> theories are built on the assumption that it doesn't.

                                Regards,
                                        Jack

--
"Don't push the river, it flows by itself"
                                Frederick Perls