Athanasios Markou
Athanasios Markou | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Spiral electric field vortex model of the electron and leptons |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Institute of Nuclear Physics, NCSR Demokritos, Athens |
Athanasios Markou is a physicist affiliated with the Institute of Nuclear Physics at the National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos" in Athens, Greece. He is known for proposing an alternative model of the electron and the other charged leptons as coreless spiral electric field vortices. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
In a paper titled "On a model of the electron and the other leptons," published in Physics Essays (Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 547–552, 2012), Markou proposes that the electron and the other charged leptons can be described as coreless spiral electric field vortices derived from the Lituus spiral. In this model the central region of each vortex is free of field, and the vortex structure is said to make the lepton electric field self-supporting, so that it does not depend on a central point charge.
According to the proposal, the electric field configuration at large distances is the same for all charged leptons, which assigns them the same electric charge, while their mass and stability are argued to depend on their winding numbers. Markou also discusses a possible structure for neutrinos, treating them as Dirac neutrinos distinct from their antineutrinos, and suggests that heavier leptons and massive gauge bosons could decay through vortex fission.
This model lies outside the mainstream Standard Model treatment of leptons as point-like fundamental particles.