The mass of systems and conservation of invariant mass

For systems, the inertial frame in which the momenta of all particles sums to zero is called the center of momentum frame. In this special frame, the relativistic energy-momentum equation has p = 0, and thus gives the invariant mass of the system as merely the total energy of all parts of the system, divided by c2

This is the invariant mass of any system which is measured in a frame where it has zero total momentum, such as a bottle of hot gas on a scale. In such a system, the mass which the scale weighs is the invariant mass, and it depends on the total energy of the system. It is thus more than the sum of the rest masses of the molecules, but also includes all the totaled energies in the system as well. Like energy and momentum, the invariant mass of closed systems cannot be changed so long as the system is closed, because the total relativistic energy of the system remains constant so long as nothing can enter or leave it.

An increase in the energy of such a system which is caused by translating the system to an inertial frame which is not the center of momentum frame, causes an increase in energy and momentum without an increase in invariant mass. E = mc2, however, applies only to closed systems in their center-of-momentum frame where momentum sums to zero.

Taking this formula at face value, we see that in relativity, mass is simply another form of energy. In 1927 Einstein remarked about special relativity, "Under this theory mass is not an unalterable magnitude, but a magnitude dependent on (and, indeed, identical with) the amount of energy."[31]

Einstein was not referring to closed systems in this remark, however. For, even in his 1905 paper, which first derived the relationship between mass and energy, Einstein showed that the energy of an object had to be increased for its invariant mass (rest mass) to increase. In such cases, the system is not closed (in Einstein's thought experiment, for example, a mass gives off two photons, which are lost).

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