EST-MMX-002: The Scattering Evidence for Extended Particles

This short note argues that the scattering experiments routinely cited as proof of point-like particles—Rutherford scattering, Compton scattering, deep inelastic scattering, and precision QED—do not demonstrate zero spatial extent. They establish operational cross-sections, response functions, and resolution bounds. A compact, stable topological defect whose internal geometry lies below the current resolution scale is experimentally indistinguishable from a point, yet carries none of the mechanical paradoxes of a zero-dimensional object. In the Elastic Spacetime Theory (EST) framework, the electron is a closed twisted loop, the photon is a torsional surface wave, and their interaction is a finite mechanical coupling in the Gar-field. The absence of resolved substructure is a resolution statement, not an ontological proof. MMX-002 forms a diptych with MMX-001: the two foundational experimental programmes of 20th-century physics, both reinterpreted as design constraints for a self-referential elastic medium with extended defect particles.