About the origin of mass

 Mass is the defining property of our material world. Everything made of matter has mass. Yet mass is not necessarily an unambiguous propert...

 Mass is the defining property of our material world. Everything made of matter has mass. Yet mass is not necessarily an unambiguous property of the material state, its existence can be inferred in different ways. 

There is inertial mass, which describes the degree of change in the state of motion of a matter in response to a force.

There is gravitational mass, which characterizes the degree of universal attractive interaction of material states, and more generally the effect of matter on space, causing its distortion. 

Mass can be created by different forms of energy, and mass, as a fundamental characteristic of the material world, can also be described as a manifestation of the energy present.

Related to this is relativistic mass, which arises from the relative motion of states of matter, as their relative kinetic energy with respect to each other. Relativistic mass is therefore a relative, related kind of property, not a fundamental property of a given state of matter.

The origin of the mass of matter can be derived from the sum of the masses of the elementary particles that make up matter. However, the existence of elementary particles is actually a wave-like state, and mass is not an obvious characteristic of this wave-like existence. Elementary particles, with the exception of the photon and possibly the gluon, and including the particle in the neutrino state, definitely have mass. Elementary particles necessarily have self-energy, which is the energy that allows them to appear as mass. 

However, the existence of mass in elementary particles requires further consideration, since there are elementary particles without mass, so mass is not always a necessarily present form of energy. 

The problem is further complicated by the fact that an elementary particle without mass, such as a photon, has a definite momentum, which is a typical characteristic of mass in motion and therefore refers to the material behavior of the energy of the particle without mass. 

In order to explain the origin of the mass-like behavior of elementary particles in the wave-like state, a field, the Higgs field (and with it the Higgs particle), was introduced, which exists in a way that fits well into the Standard Model of particle physics and is interpreted by the theory as an interaction with this field, and from this interaction the masses of elementary particles in the wave-like state emerge.

Further investigation of the existence of mass also reveals that the source of the existence of the most abundant mass in our ordinary material world is not derived from a specific material form of mass, but from the energy of the interaction between quarks and gluons. 

Looking at the different origins of mass, the question arises as to whether mass, as a defining property of the material world, is indeed a fundamental property of matter, or whether it exists as a property derived from other properties, i.e. as a more fundamental form of different properties manifesting in a similar way? 

The origins of mass seem to exist in essentially different forms. However, a general definition of the existence of mass is an aspiration to be expected from the fundamental nature of mass. Can there be a universally formulated definition that applies equally to all properties that appear as mass?

The fundamental difference in behavior between inert mass and gravitational mass, and hence the possible source of its origin, seems strikingly different, yet the experimental identity of the extent of the two properties to which have different origins somehow points to a deeper, necessarily existing connection. 

According to interpretations, the Higgs field derives the inertial mass of the elementary particles and the gravitational mass derives from the energy present, but this view of the distinction faces several interpretive difficulties. It does not explain the momentum of the photon, which does not interact with the Higgs field, it does not explain the inertial nature of the behavior of mass from the interaction of quarks and gluons, it does not explain the characteristic behavior of inertial mass, according to which mass only appears when the velocity changes, and it simply states without explanation that the behavior of mass from two different origins is exactly the same.

It is difficult to accept rationally that we have a world in which inert mass and gravitational mass are exactly the same, but this is a mere coincidence, there is no physical connection behind this identity. 

However, it is possible to have a model of the existence of our world in which inert mass and gravitational mass are consequently identical. Such a model is the grid model, in which the change in the structure of the space containing matter (gravitational mass) and the change in the displacement in the structure of space (inertial mass) can be seen in exactly the same way from the point of view of space, i.e. as the same kind of property, so in this model inertial mass and gravitational mass are consequently the same. 

The unification of inert mass and gravitational mass may allow us to define mass as a physical property of the energy present, in accordance with general relativity. The conspicuous difficulty in defining mass in terms of energy is the definite momentum of the massless photon, which has energy. However, the photon is a special particle that exists only in motion, in a state of maximum speed. This distinction may help to establish a generally valid definition of mass.

(It may also be interesting to consider that, since the state of motion is relative, at what speed do the constituents of our material world move relative to light, if electromagnetic radiation always moves at the maximum speed relative to the material world? The difference between the two relativities could surely be due to the difference in the necessary condition of acceleration, or perhaps the difference could be due to the difference in the existence of time (if time exists) between the two views of relativities.)

On the basis of the above considerations, an attempt can now be made to give a generally valid definition of mass. Mass is the property of the kind of energy to which a frame of reference can be attached, where the given energy exists in a stationary manner with respect to that frame of reference, causing the structure of space to change according to the amount of energy present. In other words, the distortion of the structure of space by the localized energy is mass, which appears as a property in physical systems. 

(Although this definition of mass seems to be a suitable generalization of the existence of mass, in fact it does not explain the phenomenon of the specific physical interaction by which localized energy is able to distort the structure of space).

The difficulty with this general definition is the interpretation of mass from the Higgs field, which does not apply the existence of mass as a property of localized energy distorting space, but as the interaction of elementary particles with the Higgs field. And the existence of the Higgs field not only completes the theoretical structure of the Standard Model of particle physics, but the Higgs particle associated with the Higgs field is the experimentally demonstrated existential physical reality of our world. 

The general definition of mass introduced above does not require the presence of the Higgs field for mass to exist, but it does require a localized state of energy. This condition, the localized existence of energy, may therefore be the one that can be related to the reality of the physical existence of the Higgs field. 

According to this consideration, therefore, the Higgs field would be somehow related to the existence of energy in a localized form, so either the interaction with the Higgs field creates a property for energy that allows it to be localized and distort space in a localized way, or the very presence of the Higgs field implements the attachable reference coordinate system in relation to which the energy present exists in a localized form. 

On this basis, the Higgs field would not be the determinant of the measure of mass, which is derived from the amount of energy present, but could be the component of our world that creates the property for the energy to be present in a localized way, or perhaps itself the reference coordinate system according to which the physical displacement can be derived.

This could therefore be the hypothetical role of the Higgs field, a role which in this form is subject to fundamental theoretical difficulties. On the one hand, the Higgs field has a well-developed form in the Standard Model of particle physics, which does not seem to be related to the existence of the localizable energy requirement it generates, and on the other hand, its existence in this form would actually bring back the existence of the aether as a stationary existing background reference coordinate system. Furthermore, the experimentally detected energy of the Higgs field and its associated Higgs particle is tens of orders of magnitude smaller than the vacuum energy associated with the Planck constant, which could be related to the physical existence of the hypothetical background reference frame. 

However, the similar theoretical role of the need for the existence of localizable energy as a precondition for the existence of mass in the general theory of gravity and the theoretical role of the Higgs field, the existence of which has already been experimentally demonstrated as necessary for the existence of mass in the Standard Model of particle physics, is striking. Taking into account the theoretical difficulties, the Higgs field can rather function as a difference field, characterizing the distortion of the reference coordinate system of the background vacuum energy by the energy represented by the resonances (particles) existing locally on it. Its quantized character can be represented by the existence of resonances in its form of waves. 

Such an existence of the Higgs field could unite the laws of quantum theory with the laws of general relativity. In this model, the existence of mass could be appropriately interpreted. Such a model is also the grid model discussed in the thoughts.