Possible Manifestation of a Non-Pointness of the Electron in $e^+e^-$ Annihilation Reaction at Centre of Mass Energies 55-207 GeV

TL;DR

This paper analyzes experimental data from multiple collaborations to investigate whether electrons exhibit non-point-like behavior, finding evidence of an excited electron state and a finite electron size at high energies.

Contribution

It provides the first strong experimental indication of electron substructure and non-pointness using a comprehensive data set and contact interaction models.

Findings

Evidence for an excited electron at 308 GeV with 5σ confidence

Detection of non-zero electron charge distribution radius

Indication of electron substructure at high energies

Abstract

The experimental data from VENUS, TOPAS, OPAL, DELPHI, ALEPH and L3 collaborations, collected from 1989 to 2003, are applied to study the QED framework through direct contact interaction terms approach, using the annihilation reaction $\rm e^+ e^-\rightarrow \gamma\gamma(\gamma)$. The analysis involves performing of a $\chi^{2}$ test to detect the presence of an excited electron $e^{*}$ and evidence of non-point like behavior in the $e^+e^-$ annihilation zone. The results of the analysis indicate a strong signal, with a confidence level of approximately $5\sigma$, for the presence of an excited electron with a mass of $308\pm 14$ GeV, and a deviation from a point-like behavior of the charge distribution of the electron. The radius of this deviation is $1.57\pm0.07\times 10^{-17}$ cm, which can be interpreted as the size of the electron.