Angular size under a collinear relativistic boost
ID: angular-size-under-a-collinear-relativistic-boost
Let an observer move towards the centre of a small distant source with velocity , where is the speed of light. For source-direction angle , the photon arrives with longitudinal momentum . A Lorentz transformation gives and therefore the relativistic aberration lawwhere is the rapidity. For a small angular diameter , the displayed angular-size ratio follows by linearizing at . Two momentarily coincident observers can consequently measure different angular sizes without any change in their observation event. If their diameter ratio is , their relative speed is .
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