Are Electrons Identical?

How similar are electrons? Are their size and mass all truly identical (whatever that means)? Is it theoretically or philosophically important for them to be absolutely identical? If so, to what precision has this been verified. What about the electric charge? What is the scale of the deviation from electron-to-electron? I know the differences are very small, has this ever been accurately measured? Finally, what about lifespan? How narrow is the frequency distribution of their observed age?
- Martin (age 50)
Sparks, NV, USA

Yes, it's theoretically important for them to be absolutely identical in a sort of philosophical sense, as well as having exactly equal properties. One reason is that in statistical physics the likelihood of finding some condition becomes proportional to how many different states obey that condition. The number of states inferred from the statistics shows that the states with electron A over here and electron B over there and the one with those two electrons switched count as only one state, not two. The electrons really aren't different objects in the normal sense of those words.

As for electron lifetimes, so far as we know the lifetime of an isolated electron is infinite.

Mike W.

(published on 08/06/2015)