Electron generation of leptons and hadrons with reciprocal alpha-quantized lifetimes and masses

Abstract

Hadron elementary particle measurements have long revealed an alpha-dependence in the long-lived threshold-state lifetimes, together with an alpha-related mass structure, where alpha ~ 1/137 is the fine structure constant. A detailed lifetime analysis shows that of the 156 particles with well-determined lifetimes, the 120 shortest lifetimes have a continuum of values, but the 36 longer lifetimes occur in alpha-spaced groups which are sorted into s, c, b quark flavors. Guided by these lifetime results, we deduce an alpha-generated set of universal mass quanta, based on the electron ground state, which apply to both leptons and hadrons. A low-mass "threshold-state octet" of particles - muon, proton, tau, pion, eta, eta prime, kaon, phi meson - is reproduced to an average mass accuracy of 0.4%, with no adjustable parameters except a small hadronic binding energy. Without the lepton states, the hadron mass pattern is difficult to ascertain.