A realist view of the electron: recent advances and unsolved problems

In view of experimentally obtainable resolutions, equal to the Compton wavelength of an electron, the conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics no longer seems to provide a sufficiently subtle tool. Based on the intrinsic properties of extended particles we propose a new theory, which allows to describe fundamental processes with unlimited precision at the microlevel. It is shown how this framework combines classical electrodynamics and quantum mechanics in a single and consistent picture. An analysis of single measurement problems reveals that the theory is suitable to remove some of the most striking paradoxes in quantum mechanics, which are found to originate from obscuring statistical effects with physical reasoning. A possible origin of the infinity problems in relativistic quantum fields is found by analyzing electron accelerations due to photon absorption processes. The current state of the theory and existing problems are discussed briefly.