The rest energy of a particle is defined as:
- ,
where is the speed of light in a vacuum. In general, only differences in energy have physical significance.
The concept of rest energy follows from the Special theory of relativity that leads to Einstein's famous conclusion about equivalence of energy and mass. See background for mass-energy equivalence.
On the other hand, the concept of the equivalent Dirac invariant rest mass may be defined in terms of the self energy corresponding to the product of a geometric matter current and a generalized potential as part of a single definition of mass in a geometric unified theory.
Read more about this topic: Invariant Mass
Famous quotes containing the words rest and/or energy:
“I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets, Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America; neither Americus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in mythology than in any history of America, so called, that I have seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)