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Mass: Four-Momentum

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Part of the book series: Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics ((ULNP))

Abstract

In the previous sections we considered the kinematics of Special Relativity, which concerns the study of the four vectors of position, velocity and acceleration. The major result of this study was the geometric description/definition of the Relativistic Mass Particle (ReMaP) as a set of four-vectors, which at each point along the worldline of the particle have common proper frame or characteristic frame depending if they are timelike or spacelike respectively.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Usually in the literature the relativistic mass of a ReMaP is referred as rest mass and it is written as m 0. This is due to the fact that its value is defined in the proper frame of the ReMaP where the ReMaP is at rest. However it is important to become clear that the relativistic mass is a (Lorentz) invariant hence its value is the same in all LCF and does not change “with the velocity” as it is erroneously claimed. Therefore the term “rest mass” is misleading and should be abandoned.

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Tsamparlis, M. (2019). Mass: Four-Momentum. In: Special Relativity. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27347-7_9

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