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Albert Einstein’s mass energy equation (E=mc²) is inadequate as it has not been completely studied and is only valid under special conditions, an Indian researcher has claimed in an international paper.

In this August 23, 1944 photo, physicist Albert Einstein plays a violin in his study in Princeton, New Jersey.

Einstein considered just two light waves of equal energy emitted in opposite directions with uniform relative velocity, Ajay Sharma, a Shimla-based researcher who challenged Einstein’s derivation, said on Sunday.

The equation was proposed by Einstein in 1905.

His technical paper — The mathematical derivation or speculation of E=mc², in Einstein’s September 1905 paper, and some peculiar experiments — was published by Bauman Moscow State Technical University in Moscow last month.

E=mc² means energy is equal to mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.

Mr. Sharma, an assistant director for education with the Himachal Pradesh government, told IANS that Einstein’s theory has not been studied completely.

“It’s only valid under special conditions of the parameters involved, e.g. number of light waves, magnitude of light energy, angles at which waves are emitted and relative velocity,” he said.

Einstein considered just two light waves of equal energy, emitted in opposite directions and the relative velocity uniform. There are numerous possibilities for the parameters which were not considered in Einstein’s 1905 derivation, said Mr. Sharma’s paper.

This equation expresses the fact that mass and energy are the same physical entity and can be changed into each other, the paper said.

It said E=mc² is obtained from L=mc² by simply replacing L by E (all energy) without derivation by Einstein. “It’s illogical,” he said.

The paper said W.L. Fadner correctly pointed out that Einstein did not mention E in the derivation.

Mr. Sharma’s book, Beyond Einstein and E=mc2 published by the Cambridge International Science Publishers, says Einstein was not the original propounder of the theory of relativity — rather he took work from existing literature and published it in 1905 in German journal Annalen de Physik.

“Many people will be surprised that Einstein’s work was not peer reviewed before publication. The first postulate of relativity was given by Galileo in 1632 in his book ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’,” the 51-year-old Mr. Sharma said.

According to him, Einstein took this opportunity to publish the work of Galileo (1632, Principle of Relativity), Poincare (1898, Constancy of Velocity of Light), Lorentz (1892, Variation of Mass etc), Larmer (1897, Time Dilation), and Fitzegerald (1889, Length Contraction) in his own name.

Although Einstein’s theory is well established, it has to be critically analysed and the new results would definitely emerge, a beaming Mr. Sharma added.