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Are you sure they are structureless, or is that just based on the accuracy by which we can measure this?


They’re theorized to be fundamental particles. Nothing smaller exists within them. There’s no nuclear decay of or fusion which produces electrons. Similar to how photons are quanta of energy.

Edit: clarified that electrons don’t decay. Of course things decay into electrons plus other things.


Er ... there are lots of nuclear decays which produce beta particles electrons. Neutrons have a short half-life when free of a nucleus, and decay into a proton, electron and an electron anti-neutrino (to conserve momentum). [1]

Electrons are posited to be fundamental, and e-e e-e<sup>+</sup> collisions haven't, as far as I know though well outside my original field of study, produced any data suggesting internal structure.

This doesn't mean that they don't have structure, we simply have no theory (that I know of, but then again, I'm a former solid state guy) that predicts structure, nor do we have sufficiently powerful colliders to get us to a point to see such structure.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_decay#%CE%B2%E2%88%92_dec...


Thanks, I tried to clarify that.


I don't think you're saying what you think you're saying.




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