Abstract
The energy and momentum conservation governs particle collision and decay processes. The concept of the center of momentum (CM) reference frame, analogous to the center of mass system, is introduced and the Lorentz coordinate transformation into the CM-frame constructed. We study decays of particles into several lighter particles, and look at the situation in several frames of reference. The energy balance of a particle decay is then considered in the CM-frame. Special attention is given to the decay that produces one of the reaction products at rest in the laboratory frame of reference. An exercise shows that photons do not decay into two massive particles.
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Notes
- 1.
The concept of center of mass may arise in the context of covariant Hamiltonian formulation of a many body system, see Sect. 25.3.
- 2.
Amalie Emmy Noether (1882–1935) is to this day considered the most important woman in the history of theoretical physics and mathematics.
- 3.
In Eq. (18.6) we introduce a ‘Mandelstam’ variable denoted by \(s\) which is the same letter symbol as used elsewhere in this book for the invariant event separation. For historical reasons we adhere to this usually in the context unambiguous nomenclature.
- 4.
See for example a special issue of: Advances in High Energy Physics 2015 (2015), Guest Editors: J.-Ph. Lansberg, G. Cavoto, C. Hadjidakis, J. He, C. Lorcé, and B. Trzeciak, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahep/si/354953/.
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Rafelski, J. (2017). A Preferred Frame of Reference. In: Relativity Matters. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51231-0_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51231-0_18
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