# What is mass renormalization?

A simple explanation of mass renormalization:

The difficulties associated with an infinite rest mass can be successfully overcome in calculation of various effects with the help of mass renormalization which essentially consists in the following. Suppose that it is required to calculate a certain effect and an infinite rest mass appears in the calculations. The quantity obtained as a result of calculations is infinite and is consequently devoid of any physical meaning. In order to obtain a physically reasonable result, another calculation’ is carried out, in which all factors, except those associated with the phenomenon under consideration, are present. This calculation also includes an infinite rest mass and leads to an infinite result. Subtraction of the second infinite result from the first leads to the cancellation of infinite quantities associated with the rest mass. The remaining quantity is finite and characterizes the phenomenon being considered. Thus, we can get rid of the infinite rest mass and obtain physically reasonable results which are confirmed by experiment. Such a method is used, for example, to calculate the energy of an electric field.

– A. N. Matveev, Electricity and Magnetism, p. 16