electrons, photons and shapes

[Moontanman]

Can electrons and photons or any other particle be said to have an actual shape?

 

They are portrayed as spheres in any illustration but aren't they more blurry locations?

[swansont]

Electrons are point particles and have a spherically symmetric charge distribution (i.e. no dipole moment, as far as we can tell). So "shape" doesn't really come to mind as a description.

[Moontanman]

Thank you, I have often wondered about that, I guess for illustration purposes a sphere makes sense but in recent years I've seen more of the diffused location type illustrations for particles like electrons, I was wondering if or which was more accurate.

 

I know things like protons have internal structure then the nucleus has several of those and atoms are imaged as vaguely roundish or as peaks.

 

What about things like photons?