Of the three fundamental particles that make up our concept of the atom, the electron alone has withstood the test of time with regard to indivisibility.
It is over a century since it was discovered, and since then its indivisibility has come to be regarded as sacrosanct. This is enshrined in the modern theory of quantum electrodynamics.
In June of this year, however, Dr Humphrey Maris of Brown University in Rhode Island delivered a paper at a Minneapolis conference on quantum fluids and solids, which proposed that the electron could not only be split in two, but could even be quartered. If he is right, then all bets are off with regard to our understanding of quantum electrodynamics.
In order to understand what he was saying, we need to consider that modern physics encapsulates a theory sometimes called wave particle duality. All particles are described by a mathematical equation that represents a wave, hence the duality of particle and wave.
The size of the wave itself has no physical meaning, but the square of this value represents the probability of finding the particle at any given location. It is useful "knowing" where the electron is because it helps to give it a shape. In its lowest energy state, this probability function tends to be spherical, so we can all be happy thinking of the electron as a tiny sphere - something most people are comfortable with.
The next highest energy level is the so-called dumb-bell shape. Maris figured that if the narrow part of the dumb-bell could be lengthened, a "pinch off" would occur leading to the creation of two half electrons from one.
When electrons from a radioactive source are directed into liquid helium, they gradually come to rest owing to molecular collisions. However, they are not captured by the helium, which already has all the electrons it can handle. Instead the unattached electrons become lodged between the helium atoms.
Researchers have found a clear area of space around the trapped electron, forming a "bubble" of about four nanometres in diameter. Maris reckoned that if he then illuminated the helium with light from a laser, it would force the trapped electrons into the higher energy dumb-bell shape and eventually to the pinch-off condition.
Earlier experiments by Northby and Sanders in the 1960s had measured the electric current caused by the movement of these electron bubbles. Illumination by light was assumed to increase the availability of the electrons and sure enough an increase in current was observed.
Maris believes that electrons that have been split into two are responsible for this observed increase in current. Although there is no net increase in charge as a result of the electron separation, it is the greater mobility of the half electrons that is responsible for the increase in current according to Maris.
In a later set of experiments by van Eden and McClintock in the 1980s, the movement of electron bubbles under the influence of an electric field was very precisely timed. Instead of producing a steady current, the researchers found that the current flowed in bursts. The Maris interpretation of these events is that the clumping of the current results first from the halving process followed by a quartering.
Maris has also raised the possibility of a new branch of electronics based on the half electrons which he refers to as "electrinos".
By and large, the physics community is sceptical of the Maris hypothesis. It is only a few years since the cold fusion affair, and most will be wary of rushing in until there is more evidence.
The Humphrey Maris paper is found in the Journal of Low Temperature Physics Vol. 120, Nos. 3/4
Fintan Gibney is a chartered physicist and an IT consultant with the Irish software company SmartForce.