From: PointedEars@web.de   
      
   Stefan Ram wrote:   
   > Anthk NM wrote or quoted:   
   >> Hidden dimensions could explain where mass comes from   
   >   
   > So now you might ask yourself: what exactly is "mass"?   
   >   
   > These days, that kind of question usually comes up in the   
   > context of quantum field theory.   
   >   
   > There we use something called a Lagrangian density, which is kind   
   > of a pain to write in plain ASCII, but it basically looks like this   
   > for a free field (no interactions):   
   >   
   > Lagrange = Psi-bar( i gamma^mu diff_mu - m )Psi.   
   >   
   > In Unicode form, it would be more like:   
   >   
   > π = πΉΜ
( i πΎ^π β_π - m )πΉ.   
   >   
   > Here, the first term (the one before the minus sign) is the "kinetic   
   > term", and the second one is the "mass term".   
   >   
   > For fields we already know, this lines up with what we normally   
   > mean by mass.   
   >   
   > So if you come across some new kind of field theory that ends   
   > up giving you a Lagrangian of this general form, then whatever shows   
   > up in place of that "m" is what we call the "mass".   
      
   Not quite. The m there is a mass *in natural units* (hbar = c = 1),   
   therefore it is more precisely called "mass *parameter". The actual   
   (expectation value of the) mass of a particle in SI units would be m hbar/c   
   (Unicode: m β/c) if there are no interactions; otherwise one must use the   
   *renormalized mass* m_r and multiply that by β/c to obtain the mass in SI   
   units.   
      
   --   
   PointedEars   
      
   Twitter: @PointedEars2   
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)   
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