This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Gene Nygaard (talk | contribs) at 19:16, 27 April 2005 (putting in the obvious "see also"). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 19:16, 27 April 2005 by Gene Nygaard (talk | contribs) (putting in the obvious "see also")(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)In particle physics, the mathematical combination of a particle's energy and its momentum to give a value for the mass of the particle at rest. The invariant mass is the same for all frames of reference (see Special Relativity).
The invariant mass of a system of decay particles is related to the rest mass of the original particle by the following equation:
Wc=(ΣE)-(Σpc)
where:
- W is the invariant mass of the system of particles
- ΣE is the sum of the energies of the particles
- Σp is the vector sum of the momenta of the particles (includes both magnitude and direction of the momenta)
- c is the speed of light