Re: mass equivalence of charged field?

Posted by alen on August 11, 2003 at 23:17:28:

In Reply to: Re: mass equivalence of charged field? posted by DickT on August 11, 2003 at 10:38:24:

Dick,

Are gluons thought to be massless? There appear to exist different views about whether they are massless or not.

If they are massless, it might be thought that they would travel at the velocity of light. But, since they carry colour charge, they may have to carry the 'rest energy' of the colour field and may therefore not be able to travel at the velocity of light, because of the field energy 'rest mass equivalence'. I don't know whether or not I can depend on this conclusion, or whether or not there is an established view about it. It would seem to imply that no massless charged boson can travel at the velocity of light.

The only reason I mentioned the electrical field is because its 'rest energy' can be demonstrated and, supposedly, this could be considered to apply to any kind of charged field.
I do recognise that there is no electrically charged particle of zero mass.

Thanks for your reply,

Alen


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