Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-symmetry-and-relativity-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/1/a/solution

Let be the magnitude of the electron's electric charge, , , and . The Lorentz force is , so the electron and Positron acquire opposite momenta:
Using the relativistic energy-momentum relation, , and integrating from rest gives the world lines
For , the world lines are vertical at on a spacetime diagram. They join smoothly to the accelerated branches with zero initial velocity. At small , and ; at large , their velocities approach , respectively. Each accelerated world line is a branch of a hyperbola, since and . The electric field separates the opposite electric charges in this orientation. The asymptotes are lightlike, while every finite-time tangent is timelike.
Figure 1. . Original spacetime diagrams for and . Dots mark the two switching events. The dashed line is the laboratory's simultaneous switching surface, which is tilted in the moving inertial frame. Details.

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