A neutral kaon of mass is at rest in the laboratory

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Relativity & Gravitation · Relativistic dynamics and fields in flat spacetime · Relativistic dynamics and fields in flat spacetime

Relativity and Gravitation, Ch Relativistic momentum, energy and collisions

Problem

A neutral kaon of mass

497.61\ \mathrm{MeV}/c^2

is at rest in the laboratory. It decays into a

\pi^+

and a

\pi^-

, each of mass

139.57\ \mathrm{MeV}/c^2

. The kaon is isolated, so four-momentum is conserved. ((a)) Find the momentum of each pion in the laboratory frame, in

\mathrm{MeV}/c

. ((b)) Find the kinetic energy of each pion in that frame. ((c)) From the total energy and total momentum of the two pions, compute the invariant mass of the pion pair.

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