In a message dated 4/7/01 9:08:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV
writes:
<< I can easily write a theory with massless charged particles, as
I have already suggested. If I calculate the corrections to the mass (as
in QED), I find that the corrections are proportional to the bare mass.
If I believe that these corrections are governed by a cut-off, as the
modern philosophy goes, then massless particles remain massless after
taking into account the effect of their EM field.
So I can clearly have theories in which charged particles are
massless. It is my guess that consistent theories would require such
particles to be confined (like gluons, which have color charge), but we
seem to be a long way from proving such a guess.
>>
This is the same conclusion that was reached by a Physicist on the other list
where this question originated. I don't find this answer uninteresting at
all. But you make my point that the question is not straight forward and we
don't really know. In my book any question that is not trivial and we don't
know the answer to, can well be worth talking about. Jack it is quite certain
that you (and many others) know a lot more physics than I do. That is why I
bring questions to this list. It is a great thing to be able to solicit the
opinions of the many fine Physicists on this list. That's why I am here.