Fernández-Rañada, Antonio2023-06-202023-06-201998-03-120370-269310.1016/S0370-2693(98)00071-9https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/58978© 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. We are grateful to Profs. Michael V. Berry, Alberto Ibort, José M. Montesinos and Mario Soler for discussions end encouragement, and to Prof. Alfredo Tiemblo for discussions and hospitality to A. F. R. at IMAFF, CSIC, Madrid. This paper has been partially supported by DGICYT under grant PB95-0383.We present a topological mechanism of discretization, which gives for the fundamental electric charge the value q(0) = root (h) over bar c = 5.29 x 10(-19) C, about 3.3 times the electron charge. Its basis is the following recently proved property of the standard linear classical Maxwell equations: they can bet obtained by change of variables from an underlying topological theory, using two complex scalar fields phi and theta the level curves of which coincide with the magnetic and the electric lines,respectively. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0370-2693(98)00071-9http://www.sciencedirect.comhttp://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9802166open access537Electromagnetic FieldTopological ModelCharge QuantizationHelicityKnot.ElectricidadElectrónica (Física)2202.03 Electricidad