Electron spin from self interaction

The author explores the possibility that the electron self-interaction is the origin of the spin and of the radiative effects of QED. The electron is conceived as a charged, massless, point particle with a quantum or stochastic, internal motion about its center of mass and bound by a self-interaction potential. The hydrodynamic equations of motion describing the electron in its center of mass frame are related to non-Markovian stochastic equations recently used to derive the Schroedinger equation. By averaging over this stochastic internal motion and identifying the energy with the rest mass energy, the angular momentum exhibits properties characteristic of spin. The electromagnetic self-interactions added to the Hamiltonian of the particle correct the g factor to yield the anomalous value (g-2)/2 ∼ 1159.7(2.3) X 10-6 in agreement with experiment. Calculations of other open-quotes radiativeclose quotes effects including the Lamb shift are presented. The results obtained are finite and suggest that the QED corrections attributed to radiative effects could be obtained classically, i.e., without second quantization and renormalization, by complementing the Dirac theory with this self-interaction mechanism. The g factor dependence on the external magnetic field of this and other spin models is compared with that of QED, showing that these theories can be tested by the present precision measurements of the g factor. 33 refs., 2 tabs