3 ms·
"Point particle" isn't quite as clean as it sounds. What it means (hand-wavy) is that the underlying electron field has a finite number of degrees of freedom fo
by movpasd 3y ago
"Point particle" isn't quite as clean as it sounds. What it means (hand-wavy) is that the underlying electron field has a finite number of degrees of freedom for every point in spacetime (in contrast to, say, a string theory). It doesn't mean that the density of the electron is infinite because quantum effects will "blur it out".
- Enginerrrd 3y agoJust to elaborate further, I believe the Compton wavelength is relevant here. In particular, the Compton wavelength of an electron is much larger than its swarzchild radius would be.
- thriftwy 3y agoCan quantum effects blur out small black holes as well? We know too few about these, though.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoIf it does, don't they cease being black holes? (If the smearing is larger than the Schwarzchild radius - obviously, that requires really small black holes...)
- danbruc 3y agoWhich seems to be really useful if you want your point particles not becoming black holes upon creation. If you think about it, every classical electron should be a black hole, it is already thanks to quantum physics that this is not the case.
- movpasd 3y agoI'm not an expert in quantum gravity, but as there's no widely accepted theory of quantum gravity I suspect the answer is: we don't know.