It's my understanding that electrons are particles, and it's also my understanding that their location while orbiting an atom cannot be determined precisely and must be determined by statistics and probability, almost like electrons can be in multiple places at the same time. That made me think, hmm, could electrons exist more as smears instead of hard-edged particles? A smear can be in more than one place at a time. The only difference is a smear doesn't have a hard edge like a spherical particle would. It would sort of "blend" matter and space. I'm also wondering if perhaps smears would demonstrate wavelike properties that hard-edged particles can't. Is there any knowledge out there that states that matter particles either must have a hard edge or can't have a hard edge?

It's my understanding that electrons are particles, and it's also my understanding that their location while orbiting an atom cannot be determined precisely and must be determined by statistics and probability, almost like electrons can be in multiple places at the same time. That made me think, hmm, could electrons exist more as smears instead of hard-edged particles? A smear can be in more than one place at a time. The only difference is a smear doesn't have a hard edge like a spherical particle would. It would sort of "blend" matter and space. I'm also wondering if perhaps smears would demonstrate wavelike properties that hard-edged particles can't. Is there any knowledge out there that states that matter particles either must have a hard edge or can't have a hard edge?