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Does a particle traveling near the speed of light create an observable/measureable gravitational field around it? I know most elementary particles travel near the speed of light and have no gravitational effect, but I'm talking about a more massive particle, say, iron for instance.

As a more specific example of what I'm trying to say; if you had a particle accelerator, could you create a decent, measurable gravitational effect in the epicenter of the circle outlined by the accelerator by accelerating a very heavy element close to the speed of light?

Kid Who Loves Crazy Physics
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  • This question seems to be on a similar topic: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/95023/does-a-moving-object-curve-space-time-as-its-velocity-increases – Ernie Jul 25 '15 at 03:55
  • A photon has a non-zero "active gravitational mass". It does have a gravitational affect. Any concentration of energy causes gravity. If you had a box full of gaseous iron atoms and you heated it up, they'd move faster. And because you've added energy, the gravitational effect is greater. See Ernie's references below. – John Duffield Jul 25 '15 at 12:47

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The general theory of relativity predicts that kinetic energy will contribute to gravitational mass. Here is a paper that explores the gravitational effect of kinetically energetic particles within a system: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/9909/9909014v1.pdf.

Here is an interesting article by Frank Helle on the production of gravity by relativistic mass (mass created by relativistic velocity): http://www.quora.com/Relativity-physics/Does-relativistic-mass-have-gravity. The conclusion is that a highly relativistic particle "does contribute to the curvature of space-time and thus to the gravity of the moving mass, but it is not exactly equivalent to a stationary particle of mass E/c^2 . . ."

Ernie
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