The meanings of the mysterious number 137

Abstract

The fine-structure constant inverse is 1/α ≅ 137.036. Both the Nobel Prize winners, Pauli and Feynman, became fascinated by the number 137; anyhow, physicists have not yet found any relation between such number and any other physical law. Here the integer 137 has several clear meanings, on the bases of the following two premises: 1) Form of light: longitudinal massive particles (photons) having length λ=c/v with v their frequency, namely the number of photons, of the same ray (continuous succession of photons), crossing a given observer in a time unit. 2) Electron structure: its charge is not uniformly distributed, but it can be considered as a point particle fixed on the electron spherical surface and facing the atom nucleus during the electron orbits; the electron charge also corresponds to the photons-electron impact point, where photons are absorbed and released. On the above bases, on H atom we found the following main results: n = 1, 2, ..137 electron different circular orbits with n2 the number of admitted photons along two equal circular orbits; v=αc electron charge ground-state (g-s) orbital speed; r= α/4πRH electron charge g-s orbit, with RH the Rydberg constant; v = c/137 exact, electron g-s orbital speed. As for the claimed fall of circling electrons into their nucleus due to their supposed photons emission, we found that the electrons are emitting the previously absorbed photons only during their spiral path toward lower orbits.