On the concept of potential energy

摘要

We study the concept of potential energy vs. interaction energy, aswell as the related concepts of active and passive sources, and propose a criterium fordetermining the potential energy localized on each of the interacting particles. Botha classical and a relativistic derivation are presented, and the classical results areapplied to the gravitational as well as the electrostatic interactions. The decomposi-tion of the interaction energy of a two-particle system into the potential energies ofthe interacting particles permits defining a total energy per particle, and the criteriaused for the decomposition, leads, in the center-of-mass frame, to the conservationof the total particle energy, in free fall, even in the presence of interactions. Thepostulated repartition of the interaction energy among the two interacting parti-cles is coherent with the theories considered and consequently cannot make newexperimental predictions within the context of these theories.