Equal-angle elastic scattering with unequal masses
ID: equal-angle-elastic-scattering-with-unequal-masses
Equal laboratory recoil angles constrain outgoing momenta, not equality of masses. In units , take an incoming mass with energy striking a stationary mass . The final momenta and conserve four-momentum and have mass shells and . Both trajectories make angle with the incident axis. This is a concrete counterexample to inferring equal masses from equal outgoing angles alone.
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