Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-relativity-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/section-a/1/solution
Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Section A 1 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The conserved initial four-momentum of a particle with positive rest mass satisfies . A single photon instead has null four-momentum, . Four-momentum conservation for an isolated one-body decay would require , contradicting these Lorentz invariants. Thus decay into a single photon is impossible in every inertial frame.
Equivalently, the incoming energy and momentum obey , whereas a single outgoing photon obeys . Changing the laboratory speed cannot change this mismatch of the invariant mass shell.
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