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Electron has mass of $9.10938356 \times 10^{-31}$ kilograms. Since an electron has mass, it should be made of some material. I understood that electron is nothing but negative charge. If this is the case what constitutes the mass of electron since charge does not contain mass? What is an electron made of in terms of matter (not as charge)?

Kyle Kanos
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Aditya Y
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    you have turned the situation upside down! To exaggerate a bit, materials have mass because they are made up of electrons! (In reality, the most important contribution of the masses of physical bodies originate from dynamical effects in QCD) – Lorenz Mayer Oct 24 '18 at 09:39
  • Hi Aditya Y, I removed your other questions about proton mass etc, since Phys.SE prefers one subquestion per post. – Qmechanic Oct 24 '18 at 09:47
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    @LorenzMayer That looks like it should be an answer, not a comment – David Z Oct 24 '18 at 10:08
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    @LorenzMayer The question was about the mass of an electron, which does not arise from QCD. – my2cts Oct 24 '18 at 12:15
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    You understood very, very wrongly that [the] "electron is nothing but negative charge". It is a chunk of mass which also has a charge. – Cosmas Zachos Oct 24 '18 at 14:03
  • From what I can understand, our current understanding of atomic structure suggests that the electron cannot be divided any further. But this hypothesis may be refuted in the future. – Curious Fish Oct 24 '18 at 16:42
  • P.S. unless I have it badly wrong, you may want to change the title to "What is the electron made of?". – Curious Fish Oct 24 '18 at 16:43
  • Doesn't the answer (for now) involve the electron's Yukawa interaction with the Higgs field? From Yukawa interaction: "The Yukawa interaction is also used in the Standard Model to describe the coupling between the Higgs field and massless quark and lepton fields (i.e., the fundamental fermion particles). Through spontaneous symmetry breaking, these fermions acquire a mass proportional to the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field. " – Alfred Centauri Oct 24 '18 at 17:10
  • Got it @Cosmas Zachos. I got one more question. If the electron is a chunk of mass what is the mass made of? – Aditya Y Oct 25 '18 at 07:51
  • @All, thanks for your comments. Based on your answers I understood that electron is a point charge. So my question is can a charge exist without mass(or matter)? – Aditya Y Oct 25 '18 at 07:52
  • @Aditya_Y the mass of the electron is made of what the masses of the other leptons and the quarks are made of: a subtle coupling to a Higgs field. What lies beyond that, nobody knows for now. – Cosmas Zachos Oct 25 '18 at 13:48
  • Related to tack-on question of OP's last comment. – Cosmas Zachos Oct 25 '18 at 14:15

2 Answers2

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The electron is an elementary point particle in the standard model of particle physics, .

This model is very successful in describing and predicting elementary particle interactions using quantum field theory.

The mass you require, " some material", is a macroscopic concept, and macroscopic material emerges from the underlying quantum mechanical which is modeled so successfully with the electron a point particle with mass and charge.

Macroscopically mass is defined by the concept of resistance to force , F=ma . Force at the quantum level is just dp/dt, the change of momentum in interactions, and the successful fit and predictions of the standard model means that yes, point particles can resist acceleration, consistent with the concept of their having a fixed mass.

If you look at the table some of the point particles have masses much larger than the one of the electron.

anna v
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  • Thats a very informative @anna v – Aditya Y Oct 25 '18 at 07:54
  • So the electrons and other particles do have mass based on the theoretical axioms/assumptions? Is there any way that we can distinguish between the mass an electron is made of and the mass a proton is made of? – Aditya Y Oct 25 '18 at 08:01
  • Also the atom is pictured to be a sphere which houses the nucleus and the electrons. Is this depiction true? If yes what is the atom's sphere made of? I have number of questions like these. Looks like I am viewing the particle physics from a very wrong direction !!! – Aditya Y Oct 25 '18 at 08:04
  • Yes, the direction is wrong. It is the quantum world at the level of the atom, and the electrons are in probable paths about the atom, called orbitals, http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Chemical/eleorb.html . You have to study quantum mechanics to really undrstand what goes on at the microscopic level. The popularizations of spheres and orbits are just that, fairy tales for children. – anna v Oct 25 '18 at 08:23
  • " Is there any way that we can distinguish between the mass an electron is made of and the mass a proton is made of? " yes, the proton is not elementary but composite. for a fairy tale (correct) explanation see here :https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/largehadroncolliderfaq/whats-a-proton-anyway/ – anna v Oct 25 '18 at 08:31
  • Hi @anna v. Those are great articles. I have one more query. When we cut a paper with scissors what actually happens? Does the electrons get separated or the atoms? Are we breaking any bonds here? – Aditya Y Oct 25 '18 at 12:16
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The straightforward answer is that nobody knows. The explanation that electron mass is generated by its coupling to the Higgs potential leaves the question to what the Higgs field is coupled and why with the coupling constant that is observed.

my2cts
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