Photons in a Box Contribute Weight

In summary, photons have mass equivalence in their energy but do not have inertial mass. However, they do possess momentum, which allows them to contribute to spacetime curvature and radiation pressure. The fact that photons have momentum is what causes them to fall along the 4-geodesics consistently computed from the total energy-momentum around. The difference in weight between a bound hydrogen atom and its separate constituents can be explained by the binding energy required to separate them. However, the mass of a proton is a more complex issue due to the permanent confinement of its constituent quarks.
  • #36
Passionflower said:
for massive particles this coordinate speed depends on a critical speed which is [itex]c/\sqrt{3}[/itex], above this speed a test particle's coordinate speed will slow down, below it it will speed up. Massive particles also have a critical proper speed which is [itex]c/\sqrt{2}[/itex].

I became interested in this type of stuff a few months ago, and I did a bunch of calculations in Schwarzschild and Rindler spacetimes. There is some confusion in the literature, but a couple of interesting references are:

http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0310020;

http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0310020.

For accelerated motion in special relativity, see Figure 1 of the second reference.
 
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  • #39
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0406118
George Jones said:
For accelerated motion in special relativity, see Figure 1 of the second reference.
How fascinating!
Fermi coordinates are truly enlightening in relativity!

The famous elevator with a twist:
 

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