The Speed of Light Predicts the Number of Lepton Families

Abstract

Vacuum fluctuations of charged particles appear in the vacuum as particle–antiparticle pairs so that quantum numbers such as charge, baryon number, and lepton number are conserved. To minimize the violation of conservation of energy and conserve angular momentum, the pair appears in the most tightly bound state that has zero angular momentum. The permittivity ϵ0 of the vacuum results primarily from bound, charged lepton–charged antilepton vacuum fluctuations that are polarized by photons traveling in the vacuum. The formula for ϵ0 depends on the number NL of lepton families but is independent of the charged lepton masses. The formula for the speed c of light in the vacuum is obtained from c=1/μ0ϵ0, where μ0 is the permeability of the vacuum. The formula for c is shown to depend on the number NL of lepton families. The calculated value of c agrees with the defined value when NL=2.92.