A Phenomenological Model for the Electromagnetic Origin of Mass in Particles, and Its Quantitative Application to the Electron, the Muon, the Proton, and the Neutron

Abstract

A simple phenomenological model is developed, which indicates the existence of a direct link between the concept of rest mass of a particle and magnetodynamic energies associated to the formation of the particle. The model is based upon the principles of quantization and conservation of flux, well known for their application in superconductivity. The charge of particles is considered as forming vortices of superconducting currents, which we postulate are created by electromagnetic fluctuations from vacuum (or related processes). A new quantization rule gathers the size, the magnetic moment, and the rest mass of the particle and associates these quantities to the integer number of flux quanta that should be stored in the vortices corresponding to each particle. The model is applied to the electron, the muon, the proton, and the neutron. Quantitative consistency with available experimental data for these subatomic particles is obtained.