Toroidal ring model

The toroidal ring model, known originally as the Parson magneton or magnetic electron, is a physical model of subatomic particles. It is also known as the plasmoid ring, vortex ring, or helicon ring. This physical model treated electrons and protons as elementary particles, and was first proposed by Alfred Lauck Parson in 1915.

The toroidal ring model, known originally as the Parson magneton or magnetic electron, is a physical model of subatomic particles. It is also known as the plasmoid ring, vortex ring, or helicon ring. This physical model treated electrons and protons as elementary particles, and was first proposed by Alfred Lauck Parson in 1915. Instead of a single orbiting charge, the toroidal ring was conceived as a collection of infinitesimal charge elements, which orbited or circulated along a common continuous path or "loop". In general, this path of charge could assume any shape, but tended toward a circular form due to internal repulsive electromagnetic forces. In this configuration the charge elements circulated, but the ring as a whole did not radiate due to changes in electric or magnetic fields since it remained stationary. The ring produced an overall magnetic field ("spin") due to the current of the moving charge elements. These elements circulated around the ring at the speed of light c, but at frequency ν = c/2πR, which depended inversely on the radius R. The ring's inertial energy increased when compressed, like a spring, and was also inversely proportional to its radius, and therefore proportional to its frequency ν. The theory claimed that the proportionality constant was the Planck constant h, the conserved angular momentum of the ring. According to the model, electrons or protons could be viewed as bundles of "fibers" or "plasmoids" with total charge ±e. The electrostatic repulsion force between charge elements of the same sign was balanced by the magnetic attraction force between the parallel currents in the fibers of a bundle, per Ampère's law. These fibers twisted around the torus of the ring as they progressed around its radius, forming a Slinky-like helix. Circuit completion demanded that each helical plasmoid fiber twisted around the ring an integer number of times as it proceeded around the ring. This requirement was thought to account for "quantum" values of angular momentum and radiation. Chirality demanded the number of fibers to be odd, probably three, like a rope. The helicity of the twist, was thought to distinguish the electron from the proton. The toroidal or "helicon" model did not demand a constant radius or inertial energy for a particle. In general its shape, size, and motion adjusted according to the external electromagnetic fields from its environment. These adjustments or reactions to external field changes constituted the emission or absorption of radiation for the particle. The model, then, claimed to explain how particles linked together to form atoms.

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