Massive particle

The physics technical term massive particle refers to a massful particle which has real non-zero rest mass (such as baryonic matter), the counter-part to the term massless particle. According to special relativity, the velocity of a massive particle is always less than the speed of light.[1] When highlighting relativistic speeds, the synonyms bradyon (from Greek: βραδύς, bradys, “slow”), tardyon[2] or ittyon[3] are sometimes used to contrast with luxon (which moves at light speed) and hypothetical tachyon (which moves faster than light).

Dark matter

Types of massive particles include weakly interacting and stable massive particles, which are hypothesized to constitute dark matter.[4]

See also

• Elementary particle
• Massless particle
• Particle
• Tachyon

References

1. Ron Folman; Erasmo Recami (1995). "On the Phenomenology of Tachyon Radiation". Foundations of Physics Letters. 8 (2): 127–134. arXiv:hep-th/9508166. Bibcode:1995FoPhL...8..127F. doi:10.1007/BF02187583. S2CID 2758139.
2. Martin Gardner (2008) [originally published February 1980]. "Professor Cracker's Antitelephone". The Jinn From Hyperspace. Prometheus Books. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-59102-565-8. Just as ordinary particles ('tardyons') can never be accelerated to the speed of light, so tachyons can never be slowed down to the speed of light.
3. Olexa-Myron Bilaniuk; E.C. George Sudarshan (1969). "Particles beyond the Light Barrier". Physics Today. 22 (5): 43–51. Bibcode:1969PhT....22e..43B. doi:10.1063/1.3035574.
4. de Swart, J. G.; Bertone, G.; van Dongen, J. (2017). "How dark matter came to matter". Nature Astronomy. 1 (59): 0059. arXiv:1703.00013. Bibcode:2017NatAs...1E..59D. doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0059. S2CID 119092226.