Monopolons I: The Electron
This paper resolves the "point particle" crisis of the Standard Model by identifying the electron as a finite toroidal soliton — the Electric Monopolon — formed from self-confined electromagnetic flux. Intrinsic quantum properties — mass, charge, and spin-½ — are geometric consequences of this topology, not fundamental mysteries requiring separate postulates. The equivalence principle emerges naturally: all matter is made of the same electromagnetic field topology, so all matter responds identically to vacuum gradients.
This paper resolves the "point particle" crisis of the Standard Model by identifying the electron as a finite toroidal soliton — the Electric Monopolon — formed from self-confined electromagnetic flux. Intrinsic quantum properties — mass, charge, and spin-½ — are geometric consequences of this topology, not fundamental mysteries requiring separate postulates.
The vacuum refraction model of gravity (established in OFT 3) is extended to the matter sector. The finite radius of the electron forces it to undergo refractive steering (Snell's Law) in field gradients. This unifies the motion of light and matter under a single optical principle: light bends because wavefronts propagate at different speeds; matter falls because the wavefronts of its internal flux structure propagate at different speeds across its finite extent.
The equivalence principle emerges naturally: all matter is made of the same electromagnetic field topology, so all matter responds identically to vacuum gradients. A rock falls for the same reason a lens focuses — the wavefronts are steering it.
OFT 1–3 developed the wave sector (no particles). This paper introduces the monopolon sector — matter as stable topological solitons. The photon is a fiction; the electron is not.