Fine Structure Constant
New Insight

by
Vernon Brown
December 18, 2008

At the turn of the 20th century when currently accepted theory was held less religiously, scientists often ventured into the unholy ground of new ideas. We could theorize about what possibilities might exist under certain scenarios for reality. If we are allowed that freedom of thought in these times, we might theorize about a universe comprised of photons alone. In such a universe there would be cause and effect for all things such as relativity phenomena which we have already covered. Now let's think about what might be the cause of the fine-structure constant when we restrict and constrain the speculation to a universe comprised only of photons.

The fine-structure constant is so called because it is related to the fine-structure apparent in atomic spectra. It was first noticed when it was discovered that there was a fine structure in the spectra of starlight. These spectral lines are thought to be due to the transitions of electrons between available energy levels in atoms. Some scientists speculate that it is the ratio between the speed of an electron in orbit and the speed of light. This ratio is about 1/137 and the numbers do work out for the speculation related to the Bohr Atom.

Now lets restrict the scenario to a photon-only universe and look for the origin of the fine-structure constant. We know that the constant has a very close relationship to the value of the force of the electric charge of an electron. In a photon-only universe the value of the electric charge of an electron is already determined to be tied directly to the bend radius of the path of the electron's comprising photon. Given these two tidbits of info it is a short leap to understand the origin of the fine-structure constant. It is the ratio of electrical charge amplitude of an electron to the bend radius of the path of the photon that comprises the electron.

Now that we have determined that, we can easily see that when the path of a photon is bent more strongly such as it is in the outside shell of the neutron, the value of the electrical charge will be stronger than that of an electron. We can also know how much stronger the value of the electrical charge will be. We can know this because we know that when measured from any distance away greater than the radius of an electron, the value is exactly that of an electron. This tells us the force decreases as the inverse square of distance. So, then, it must increase with the square of distance going in to a smaller radius.

This simple exercise gives us something we can actually test. We can compare the values we get for the forces to well known measured values. Using this method, as in the Square-of-the-Shells rule, the values are 2.54992 for the neutron's outer shell, 6.50209 for the proton's outer shell and 42.27723 for the proton's next to outer shell. If we merge two protons together so that their outer and next to outer shells are in close proximity, we have four such areas of proximity. We see two shells 2 and two shells three. The sum of these is roughly 97.54. This is the measured value of the strong nuclear interaction in terms of the electron taken as unity.

So, when we consider that the fine-structure constant is the ratio of electrical charge amplitude of an electron to the bend radius of the path of the photon that comprises the electron we have some insight into a more valuable phenomena. We can see a good candidate for the source of the strong nuclear interaction.