Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-1-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/7/solution
Past exam of the physics 1 paper of the University of Oxford 2015 7 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Work in the parent's rest frame, with . Four-momentum conservation givesso both daughter momenta have magnitude . Their relativistic energy-momentum relations give and . Subtracting these two relations and using the total energy yieldsSubstitution back gives the relativistic two-body decay momentum:The unit vector is not fixed by four-momentum conservation alone. The expression under the square root is the Källén function . The physical two-body decay threshold is ; for massive daughters equality gives zero outgoing momentum. For two massless daughters, each has energy and momentum magnitude .
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