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There seem to be several different ways in which mass manifests itself, in particular with reference to fundamental particles:

  1. Gravitational mass.
  2. Inertial mass.
  3. The coupling to the Higgs field.
  4. The energy and lifetime of virtual particles.

Values for the mass of the fundamental particles are shown on the table in the Standard Model.

As I understand it, gravitational mass relates to the energy of particles through $E=MC^2$ and inertia is a consequence of interaction with the Higgs field and therefore (I presume) a consequence of some constant property of the particle that must be determined by experiment.

But how does this relate to the mass/energy required to create a virtual particle? Is it again the coupling with the Higgs field (and therefore related to inertia) that affects energy required for a particle, or is that relationship indirect? Why are these values the same, if they are the same?

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  • $\begingroup$ "inertia is a consequence of interaction with the Higgs field" inertial mass is defined classically, nothing to do with the higgs field. (maybe you are confused with the popularized version of the acqusision of mass from elementary particles, but that happened once during symmetry breaking time in the cosmological model. $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 12:31
  • $\begingroup$ I suppose this is my question. I was referring to the "popular" explanation that, for example, free electrons have mass due to interaction with the Higgs field whereas photons don't. I assumed this was inertial mass as the explanations use this in their examples. But what is the relation to the mass in point (4)? $\endgroup$
    – rghome
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 18:38
  • $\begingroup$ Mass in elementary particles is defined as the "length" of the four vector (E,px,py,pz) hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Relativ/vec4.html . Virtual particles have a variable mass, because their four vectors are under an integration for the particlular reaction ., $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 18:52
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks - I will check that link out. $\endgroup$
    – rghome
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 19:00

1 Answer 1

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First there was the empirical mass, the weight, that humanity used for thousands of years, various civilizations using a standard of weight so as to count their produce.

Then Newton came and weight became a subset of one of his laws, as the result of the force of gravity on an intrinsic mass, given by the famous $F=ma$ , where m is the inertial mass of classical mechanics. This mass is conserved.

Then special relativity came for very high velocities and energies in general, where the much discussed $E=mc^2$ has a variable mass dependent on velocity, the relativistic mass, which is out of fashion for particle physics since it is not invariant under Lorentz transformations.

What is called the invariant mass is invariant under Lorentz transformations and is the length of the four vector describing an elementary particle or a system of particles given by $(E,p_x,p_y,p_z)$ .

In our present physics knowledge the mass of the elementary particles, is the mass assigned to them when the electroweak symmetry was broken back in the current cosmological model , a fixed invariant mass for each particle in the table.

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