Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/ia/paper-4/12b/a/solution

Use four-momentum with components , suppressing the identically zero third spatial component. The photon in the primed frame has
Its energy is and its spatial momentum has magnitude . Apply the same Lorentz transformation as for the spacetime coordinates. With ,
The time component gives the relativistic Doppler effect
The aberration of light follows by dividing spatial components by :
In particular
where the tangent expression is understood only when its denominators exist. The sine and cosine equations determine the correct quadrant and also cover directions where the tangent/secant expression is undefined.
For the photon-number half-cone under relativistic aberration, the forward half of the primed emission angles is . The aberration of light is monotone on this interval, and its endpoints have . Thus exactly half of a uniform angular photon distribution lies within the lab-frame cone
As , , so the cone becomes narrow. Here “half” counts emitted photons or ray directions; it is not a claim that half of the observed energy or power lies there, since the relativistic Doppler effect changes the photon energies with angle.

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