1891, the Irish physicist, George Stoney, believed that electricity
should have a fundamental unit. He called this unit the electron.
As is commonly known, the hydrogen atom is the smallest atom that exists in nature. The mass ratio between an electron and a hydrogen atom is approximately 1:1836. From this numerical comparison, it is evident that the mass of an electron is much smaller than that of a hydrogen atom.
Besides its electric charge and mass, an electron has one more key property, which is called ďelectron spin.?Just as the earth rotates around its axis, the electron is also constantly ďspinning.?
The concept of electron spin was discovered by S.A. Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck in 1925.
The electron has three basic properties: electric charge, mass and spin.
As far as we can understand, electron spin is the electronís intrinsic angular momentum.
As far as we can tell, the electron is still regarded as a point like particle, with no internal structure and no physical size.
How can a point particle, without any physical size, spin and have intrinsic angular momentum?
The spinning of the point particle is meaningless. What matters is where the intrinsic angular momentum originates from inside the electron.
There are many people who believe that an electronís mass may have an electromagnetic origin. Is there a possibility then that the electron spin also has an electromagnetic origin?
ďWhat Is the Electron Spin? tries to answer this
question. This book is based on the assumption that the electron
spin has an electromagnetic origin. That is, the electronís intrinsic
angular momentum results from an electromagnetic field.
Because the electron has an intrinsic angular momentum, we know that the electron must have an intrinsic magnetic field. Similar to a magnetic dipole field, the electron is natureís smallest magnet.
As is commonly known, the electromagnetic field can have energy and momentum as well as angular momentum.
ďWhat Is the Electron Spin??makes a basic assumption that the electron itself has an electromagnetic origin. It then extends that theory to all of the electronís properties, such as mass and spin, claiming they have an electromagnetic origin as well. For example, an electronís self-energy comes from its electromagnetic field energy, and the electron spin is the angular momentum of the electronís electromagnetic field.
The first point this book attempts to make is that the electron is no longer regarded as a point particle. Rather, it purports that there is a continuum spherical distribution of both electric and magnetic charges inside the electron.
Chapter 1 is an introduction to the book and illustrates a simple electron spin model.
Chapter 2 introduces a single mathematical equation to describe how the electric charge is distributed inside the electron.
Chapter 3 introduces another mathematical equation, this one describing how the magnetic charge is distributed inside the electron.
Expanding upon the principles outlined in Chapters 2 and 3, Chapters 4 and 5 provide a solution to the electric and magnetic field distribution equations inside the electron.
Chapter 6 sets forth the notion that electron spin is the angular momentum of the electronís electromagnetic field.
Chapters 7 through 9 explain the theory that the electronís self-energy comes from its electromagnetic field energy.
Chapters 10 through 15 discuss the conservation laws surrounding electric charges, magnetic charges and electromagnetic energy.
Chapters 16 through 19 extend the electronís electromagnetic model to that of the proton, the neutron and hydrogen and helium atoms. Within these chapters, the book goes on to make the claim that itís not only an electron that has an electromagnetic origin, but all of the fundamental particles as well.
Chapters 20 through 23 of this book discuss the electromagnetic wave inside the electron. They also provide a possible solution to the hydrogen atom spectrum, setting it forth as a hydrogen atom electromagnetic stationary wave spectrum.
The last chapter, Chapter 24, discusses the symmetrical relationship between time-space and energy-momentum.
Here are some key conclusions that can be drawn from this book:
Book's back cover:
The conservation of electric charge
12. The conservation of magnetic charge
13. The electromagnetic field equation
14. The electromagnetic field equation in complex form
15. The conservation of energy
16. The electromagnetic model of the proton