The
invariant mass,
rest mass,
intrinsic mass,
proper mass, or in the case of bound systems simply
mass, is a characteristic of the total
energy and
momentum of an
object or a
system of objects that is the same in all
frames of reference related by
Lorentz transformations. If a
center of momentum frame exists for the system, then the invariant mass of a system is simply the total energy divided by the speed of light squared. In other reference frames, the energy of the system increases, but system momentum is subtracted from this, so that the invariant mass remains unchanged.