${}$What is an electron?

Question

I have been taught that an electron has a wave-particle duality nature and an electron behaves as a wave when traveling.

I do also know that a wave is some kind of vibration, either it be a vibration of a vector field, or of a particle.

My questions is: If an electron behaves as a wave and a wave means some sort of vibrations, then what "kind" of vibration is/describes an electron?

I am not exactly meant " what is an electron". The last para in the question explains my doubt. I am asking about one of its properties-The "type" of vibration associated with it. — Kartikey, May 09 '20 at 09:14

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 09 '20 at 08:55

1

Questions like that are not easy to answer, since the electron is nothing which one can compare to a thing which is understood by something more intuitive to you without making unwanted simplifications. When someone asks me a question like that i would say something like:

                     An electron is the sum of its properties.

So it is something which is interacting via its electric charge its spin (which could be understood like a magnetic dipole moment) its isospin (which is something like the charge of the weak interaction). It has the mass $m_e$.

It can be described as a wave and as a particle, dependent on the energy scale on which it is observed.

The most "complete" description of the electron is given by the Dirac-Field.

answered May 09 '20 at 08:55

AlmostClueless

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so in accordance with the Dirac-field theory, what type of vibration is associated with an electron? – Kartikey May 09 '20 at 09:08
is it an electric field?? – Kartikey May 09 '20 at 09:16
What is an electric field to your understanding ? – AlmostClueless May 09 '20 at 09:21

${}$What is an electron?

1 Answers1