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Physics - Properties and Mass?
Since electrons have mass and charge etc, and photons have properties (eg wavelength) with no mass, is it possible to have mass with no physical properties? Would this account for what is sometimes called "dark matter"? Logically this could follow, but I am possibly missing something.
Get as technical as you like as even though I dont have a degree in physics I have read and understood many books at that level.
Serious answers preferably with some sort of bibliography/citations please.
1 Answer
- ?Lv 59 years agoFavourite answer
It is possible to have a spin zero massive particle, I believe. It would be a boson. I don't know any examples off the top of my head, I never learned the particle zoo well.
Neutrons have no net charge. Neutrinos have no charge, period.
Anything with mass will have a location (or at least a wavefunction) a velocity (likewise), a momentum, and therefore a kinetic energy. It would have gravitational potential energy based on its location.
With no charge, it would have no electric field, no magnetic field.
So some physical properties follow from others. It would be easier if you gave a list of properties and asked whether a particle existed which had zero value of those. But I understand the urge to ask for the general abstract concept, for a sort of "prototypical fundamental particle."
Source(s): I tutor physics, but I have no Ph.D.
