Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 138
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11412-2

Regular Article

A semiclassical extended electron model

¹ Univ de Concepción, Departamento de Física, Concepcion, Chile
² Univ Los Andes, Fac Ingn & Ciencias Aplicadas, Complex Syst Grp, Santiago, Chile

^* e-mail: jdiaz@udec.cl

Received: 13 December 2016
Accepted: 15 February 2017
Published online: 22 March 2017

Abstract

The self-energy of a given charge distribution is the energy required to assemble the distribution by bringing in the constituent charges from infinity. Particularly, for a pointlike distribution (e.g., a classical electron) the self-energy is infinity. Thus a modification of the Coulomb potential is required in order to have a finite value for this energy. Here we present a model for a charged particle consisting of a potential well together with a combination of Coulomb and Yukawa-like potentials. This leads us to finding an approximate value attributed to its self-energy. We subsequently discuss the non-relativistic electron-electron scattering problem.