A 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

K^+

of mass

493.68\ \mathrm{MeV}/c^2

is at rest in the laboratory. It decays into a

\mu^+

of mass

105.66\ \mathrm{MeV}/c^2

and a neutrino, which may be treated as massless. The kaon is isolated, so four-momentum is conserved. ((a)) Find the magnitude of the momentum of each product in the laboratory frame, in

\mathrm{MeV}/c

. ((b)) Find the kinetic energy of the muon in that frame. ((c)) From the total energy and total momentum of the muon and the neutrino, compute the invariant mass of that two-particle system.

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