Axion mass - Temperature

[memento829]

Axion mass is said to depend on temperature. I don't understand this. Can somebody explain how the mass of an elementary particle depend on temperature at all? Temperature is the average kinetic energy of particles. So what does it have anything to do with the mass of an elementary particle?

[Drakkith]

I think that there is considerable confusion over "mass". As far as I understand it, mass only refers to the rest mass of something usually. Trying to add in different types of mass such as relativistic mass is confusing and does nothing to help anything. As far as I am concerned the temp of an object has nothing to do with the mass. (However I am not sure on this, as I said there is much confusion and misunderstanding.)

[cloa513]

Temperature is an average of quantum states. A laser pointer beam has a temperature of over 1000K for a tiny fraction of a second. Energy and mass are the same so higher temperature means higher energy and higher mass equivalence.

[Bill_K]

memento, The axion is a Nambu-Goldstone boson whose mass is dynamically determined, and evolves during the inflationary period of the universe. For a good recent review, see

http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.1066