English

Why Do the Relativistic Masses and Momenta of Faster-than-Light Particles Decrease as their Speeds Increase?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2014-01-14 v2 Mathematical Physics Logic math.MP

Abstract

It has recently been shown within a formal axiomatic framework using a definition of four-momentum based on the St\"uckelberg-Feynman-Sudarshan-Recami "switching principle" that Einstein's relativistic dynamics is logically consistent with the existence of interacting faster-than-light inertial particles. Our results here show, using only basic natural assumptions on dynamics, that this definition is the only possible way to get a consistent theory of such particles moving within the geometry of Minkowskian spacetime. We present a strictly formal proof from a streamlined axiom system that given any slow or fast inertial particle, all inertial observers agree on the value of m1v2\mathsf{m}\cdot \sqrt{|1-v^2|}, where m\mathsf{m} is the particle's relativistic mass and vv its speed. This confirms formally the widely held belief that the relativistic mass and momentum of a positive-mass faster-than-light particle must decrease as its speed increases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.3713,
  title  = {Why Do the Relativistic Masses and Momenta of Faster-than-Light Particles Decrease as their Speeds Increase?},
  author = {Judit X. Madarász and Mike Stannett and Gergely Székely},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.3713},
  year   = {2014}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:27:12.819Z