Cosmological consequences of a classical finite-sized electron model

Abstract

For a finite-sized classical electron, energy conservation requires that the Born self-energy $U_{e}^{\mathit{Born}}$, due to the electric field which surrounds the electron, be added to the electron’s rest mass energy $m_{e}c^{2}$. $U_{e}^{\mathit{Born}}$, which scales inversely with the electron radius $R_{e}$, is very large and, in fact, would dominate all other energy contributions within the intergalactic medium (IGM). By taking into account the ionization fraction $\nu _{e}$ of atomic hydrogen in the IGM Dark Energy can be quantitatively explained using $U_{e}^{\mathit{Born}}$ without the necessity of a cosmological constant $\varLambda $.