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RE: Journey through the understanding of particle physics - Three
Point like particles are always problematic because of the self energy problem. If an electron is infinitely small then the field strength near the electron becomes infinitely large and the energy required to jam all that energy together also approaches infinity.
I think that is why strings and loops were proposed, it kind of/maybe tries to solve that issue.
https://quantummechanics.ucsd.edu/ph130a/130_notes/node475.html
Yes but QFT predicts particles to be waves spreading over space.
I think the wave amplitude at any given point in space is linked to the probability to observe that particle at that position.
Don't quote me on this as I'm far from being familiar with all these concepts.
Thanks for reading.
I was thinking more about when the size of an electron is measured (by firing other electrons at it). I think that they haven't found that size yet, it is so small.
This implies a lot of self-energy but I get confused by this stuff as well.
There are experiments trying to measure the size of the electron, and for the moment, the upper bound on the radius is of about 10-18 meters.