4.I.7D

Special Relativity | Part IB, 2004

For a particle with energy EE and momentum (pcos⁡θ,psin⁡θ,0)(p \cos \theta, p \sin \theta, 0), explain why an observer moving in the xx-direction with velocity vv would find

E′=γ(E−pcos⁡θv),p′cos⁡θ′=γ(pcos⁡θ−Evc2),p′sin⁡θ′=psin⁡θ,E^{\prime}=\gamma(E-p \cos \theta v), \quad p^{\prime} \cos \theta^{\prime}=\gamma\left(p \cos \theta-E \frac{v}{c^{2}}\right), \quad p^{\prime} \sin \theta^{\prime}=p \sin \theta,

where γ=(1−v2/c2)−12\gamma=\left(1-v^{2} / c^{2}\right)^{-\frac{1}{2}}. What is the relation between EE and pp for a photon? Show that the same relation holds for E′E^{\prime} and p′p^{\prime} and that

cos⁡θ′=cos⁡θ−vc1−vccos⁡θ\cos \theta^{\prime}=\frac{\cos \theta-\frac{v}{c}}{1-\frac{v}{c} \cos \theta}

What happens for v→cv \rightarrow c ?

Typos? Please submit corrections to this page on GitHub.