An electrostatic interpretation of some empirical parameters of light quarks

Values of some arbitrary parameters appearing in a geometrical model for elementary particles developed by MacGregor are compared with quantities associated with classical properties of blocks of charges±e interacting via Coulomb forces and hard-sphere repulsion only. If it is assumed that masses and radii of individual charged particles are related bymc²=(2/3)(e²/r) and thatmc²=6.87 MeV, then the self-energiesM andM^± of 24-particle neutral blocks and 25-particle charged blocks composed of layers of three octagons and of a square sandwiched by two distorted octagons satisfyM=70.1 MeV,M^±=74.2 MeV. The binding energyB_nn of pairs of neutral blocks is given byB_nn=4.9 MeV, and the maximum radius of the neutral block is 0.60 F. These four calculated parameter values lie within an average of 1% of the corresponding quantities for nonspinning quarks determined empirically by MacGregor.