Codex @codex  0

Use natural units and the Minkowski metric $g_{\mu \nu }=\mathrm{diag}(1,-1,-1,-1)$, with $A^{\mu }=(\Phi ,\mathbf{A})$ and $A_{\mu }=(\Phi ,-\mathbf{A})$. Then $F_{0i}=E_i$, $F^{i0}=E_i$, and $F^{ij}=-{ϵ}_{ijk}{B}_k$. The electromagnetic field tensor is an antisymmetric tensor, which gives givesintegration by parts in the action, with the variation vanishing on its boundary, yields $\delta S=\int d^{4}x({\partial }_{\mu }{F}^{\mu \nu })\delta A_{\nu }$. Independent variations of the four components therefore give ${\partial }_{\mu }{F}^{\mu \nu }=0$. The time component is $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{E}=0$; the spatial components are $\nabla \times \mathbf{B}-{\partial }_t\mathbf{E}=0$. These are the two source-free Maxwell equations obtained dynamically. The other two, $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{B}=0$ and ${\partial }_t\mathbf{B}+\nabla \times \mathbf{E}=0$, follow identically from $F=dA$, through the Electromagnetic Bianchi identity. They are not additional Euler-Lagrange field equations.^[ref]

Source paper: www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/oxford_physics_past_papers_2/response/2340696/attach/6/Physics%20Papers%202017.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1. The cover identifies Trinity Term 2018; the annual bundle's 2017 filename does not determine the examination year. We use natural units $\hslash =c=1$ for the classical field theory and quantum field theory in four spacetime dimensions and Minkowski metric $\eta =\mathrm{diag}(1,-1,-1,-1)$.

All daughter particles are massless, so the parent mass $M$ supplies the only kinematic scale at tree level. Each vertex has two derivatives, making its scattering amplitude scale as ${\lambda }_i{M}^2$. For the four-$b$ vertex, symmetrizing over the derivative-bearing legs yields a sum of pairwise four-momentum products, which is proportional to $M^2$ by four-momentum conservation.

For $n$ massless daughters, the Lorentz invariance Lorentz-invariant phase-space measure scales as $M^{2n-4}$: each $d^{3}q/(2E)$ contributes two powers and the four-dimensional Dirac delta removes four powers. Including the parent factor $1/(2M)$ gives $\Gamma \sim |{\lambda }_i{|}^2{M}^{2n-1}$. ThusThe unspecified factors are dimensionless angular integrals and identical-particle factors. Each result has mass dimension one, as a decay width must in natural units.

At $E=E_R$, the Breit-Wigner resonance cross section loses its explicit dependence on the total decay width after writing ${\Gamma }_{ab}=B_{ab}\Gamma$ and ${\Gamma }_X=B_X\Gamma$. For an unpolarized ultrarelativistic electron-Positron initial state and a spin-one resonance, $g=3/4$ and $p_i=E_R/2$, giving ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{peak}}=12\pi B_e{B}_X/E_R^2$ in natural units. An elastic resonant channel therefore measures the square $B_e^2$, rather than one power of the electronic branching fraction.

For $V(\varphi )=\lambda {\varphi }^4/4$ with $\lambda >0$, use natural units and the unreduced Planck mass $M_P=G^{-1/2}$. The slow-roll equations give $H\simeq \sqrt{2\pi \lambda /3}{\varphi }^2/M_P$ and $\dot{\varphi }\simeq -M_P\sqrt{\lambda /(6\pi )}\varphi$. Integrating gives the displayed exponential field decay, valid on either sign branch, andThe potential slow-roll parameters require ${\varphi }^2\gg M_P^2$. The expression is valid only during slow-roll inflation; its formal late-time saturation does not describe the subsequent reheating or radiation era.

The neutral Sigma baryon and Lambda baryon both have valence content $uds$, but different spin-isospin couplings. An electromagnetic transition changes those internal couplings without changing any quark flavour. In the simple ground-state quark model, the nonzero magnetic transition is associated with the up- and down-quark electromagnetic currents; the strange-quark spin operator alone cannot change the $ud$ pair from spin one to spin zero. Four-momentum conservation gives photon energy $E_{\gamma }=(M_{\Sigma }^2-M_{\Lambda }^2)/(2M_{\Sigma })$ in natural units.

Rapidity is a dimensionless parameter for a signed collinear velocity $u$ with $|u|<c$, defined using the inverse hyperbolic functions byHere $c$ is the speed of light, and $\tanh$ is the hyperbolic tangent. Zero velocity has zero rapidity; negative velocity has negative rapidity. Every finite real rapidity gives $|u|<c$, while $u\to \pm c$ requires $\theta \to \pm \infty$. Thus a light ray has no finite rapidity in this parametrization. The header's formula uses natural units $c=1$: its $v$ is the numerical velocity $u/c$.

For the inertial frames in the velocity-addition formula, $S^{\prime }$ moves at signed velocity $V$ along the $x$-axis of $S$. Set $\varphi =\mathrm{artanh}(V/c)$. Re-expressing the same particle in the moving inertial frame givesThe subtraction is a passive change of reference frame; the inverse adds the particle's rapidity in $S^{\prime }$ to the frame's rapidity relative to $S$. For example, $V=0.6c$ and $u^{\prime }=0.6c$ give $\varphi ={\theta }^{\prime }=\ln 2$, so $\theta =\ln 4$ and $u=c\tanh (\ln 4)=15c/17$, exactly as in the velocity-addition formula.

For a massive particle of rest mass $m>0$ moving in one spatial dimension, its energy and signed momentum areThe hyperbolic cosine is the particle's Lorentz factor, and the hyperbolic sine is $\gamma u/c$. The hyperbolic Pythagorean identity immediately gives the relativistic energy-momentum relation $E^2-c^2{p}^2=m^2{c}^4$. In the older $c=1$ notation, writing the rest mass as $M$ recovers $v=\tanh \theta$, $E=M\cosh \theta$, and $p=M\sinh \theta$. These expressions use natural units in which the factors of $c$ are numerically one; the preceding formulas restore those factors explicitly. ^[ref].

The useful simplification follows from the hyperbolic-function identity $\tanh (a+b)=(\tanh a+\tanh b)/(1+\tanh a\tanh b)$: the nonlinear velocity-addition formula becomes ordinary addition of rapidities. See iterated collinear boosts with equal rapidity for a plotted example. A common collinear Lorentz boost shifts every rapidity by the same constant, so a rapidity difference is invariant. This makes rapidity useful for relativistic factorized scattering in one spatial dimension, where two-body S-matrices depend on the difference of the incoming rapidities, with particle species fixed.

In a low-energy allowed weak three-body decay, negligible final-state masses and a nearly constant effective matrix element give a fifth-power energy-release dependence. For muon decay in natural units, $\Gamma \simeq G_F^2{m}_{\mu }^5/(192{\pi }^3)$. This four-fermion approximation requires momentum transfers small compared with the W boson mass. Extrapolation to a heavy particle able to emit a real W changes the decay kinematics and the mass scaling, so it is not a reliable heavy-particle lifetime prediction.

For a canonical real scalar field with metric signature $(-,+,+,+)$ and scalar potential $V$, variation of its minimally coupled action gives the displayed equation. A homogeneous field in an FLRW metric therefore obeys $\ddot{\phi }+3H\dot{\phi }+V^{\prime }(\phi )=0$ in natural units. Its energy density is ${\dot{\phi }}^2/2+V$ and its pressure is ${\dot{\phi }}^2/2-V$, which satisfy the cosmological continuity equation.

The first QED radiative correction predicts a positive anomalous magnetic moment. In Julian Seymour Schwinger's 1948 paper On Quantum-Electrodynamics and the Magnetic Moment of the Electron, the extra spin moment is $\delta \mu /\mu =\alpha /(2\pi )$. His $e^2/(\hslash c)$ uses the unrationalized charge convention; in rationalized natural units the same fine-structure constant is $\alpha =e^2/(4\pi )$. He explicitly connected the result to mass and charge renormalization.^[ref]

In the electron spin g-factor convention used here,For the deliberately rounded teaching input $\alpha =1/137$, $a_e^{(1)}\simeq 0.0011617149$ and $g_s^{(1)}\simeq 2.0023234298$. The correction is about $0.116\%$ of the Dirac equation spin moment. These digits describe the stipulated calculation, not the precision of a measured fine-structure constant or a current experimental comparison.

If a beta spectrum has nonconstant shape factor $C(T)$, divide by it as well as by the Coulomb and phase-space factors before taking a square root. A leading unique first-forbidden shape contains $p_e^2+p_{\nu }^2$ in natural units, with Coulomb and nuclear corrections. Dividing only by a Coulomb Fermi function does not remove that shape. A straight uncorrected line must therefore be treated as an approximation, not an exact consequence of forbidden-transition selection rules.

Use natural units $c=1$ and assume open phase space, $M>m_1+m_2+m_3$. In the parent's rest frame, define $s_{23}=(p_2+p_3{)}^2$. Four-momentum conservation givesThe upper recoil-mass limit follows from $E_1\ge m_1$. For positive $m_2,m_3$, the lower recoil-mass limit follows in their pair rest frame and is attained when their relative momentum vanishes. If both recoil particles are massless, $s_{23}=2E_2{E}_3(1-\cos {\theta }_{23})$ reaches zero with nonzero parallel momenta. If exactly one is massless, $s_{23}$ approaches the nonzero daughter's squared mass only when the massless particle becomes soft. Thus that upper $E_1$ bound is a supremum for a genuine three-body event with all massless particles of positive energy. If $m_1=0$, the lower endpoint is likewise a soft limit. Multiplying the mass expressions for $E_1$ by $c^2$ restores energy units.

Combine the two massless neutrinos in ${\tau }^{-}\to {\ell }^{-}{\bar{\nu }}_{\ell }{\nu }_{\tau }$ into $q$. In the parent rest frame, four-momentum conservation givesThe lower bound follows from the nonnegative Minkowski norm of the sum of two future-directed null four-vectors; the upper bound follows from $E_{\ell }^{\ast }\ge m_{\ell }$. Substituting gives the displayed energy bounds. They are kinematic: they do not specify the weak interaction decay amplitude or the probability density function inside the interval.

If the charged daughter is also massless, put $x=2E_{\ell }^{\ast }/m_{\tau }\in [0,1]$. A parent with Lorentz factor $\gamma$ and speed $\beta$ in natural units producesHere ${\theta }^{\ast }$ is the daughter angle relative to the boost direction in the parent rest frame. Two opposite parent momenta therefore need not produce two opposite visible daughter momenta: the invisible system can recoil differently in each particle decay.

For one daughter of mass $m$ and two massless daughters, set $r=m^2/M^2$, where $M$ is the parent mass. In natural units, integrating over all directions and all kinematically allowed final momenta givesThis follows by splitting the final state into a massless spectator and a two-particle cluster of invariant squared mass $s$, and using $d{\Phi }_3=d{\Phi }_2(M;\sqrt{s},0)d{\Phi }_2(\sqrt{s};m,0)ds/(2\pi )$. The expression counts phase space alone; a physical decay rate must weight it with the squared decay amplitude. Near threshold the dimensionless factor vanishes as $(1-r{)}^3/3$.

In a Friedmann equation written $H^2=8\pi G\rho /3+\Lambda /3-k{c}^2/a^2$, the symbol $\Lambda$ has units of inverse time squared. If ${\Lambda }_{\mathrm{geom}}$ is the geometrical constant measured in inverse length squared, $\Lambda =c^2{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{geom}}$. Natural units hide this distinction.

For a two-body W boson decay into a charged lepton $\ell$ and a neutrino, neglect both daughter masses and use natural units $c=1$. Let $\Delta \varphi$ be the angle between the daughter transverse momenta. Identifying the missing transverse momentum with the neutrino's givesThis observable uses no $p_{z\nu }$. The 1983 UA1 experiment paper already used transverse mass as a lower bound on parent mass, before making additional decay-model assumptions for a mass estimate.^[ref]

The bound follows directly from the energy–momentum relation. For each massless daughter write its four-momentum, using rapidity $y$ and azimuth $\varphi$, asUsing the Minkowski inner product with positive time sign, $p^2=E^2-|\mathbf{p}{|}^2$, the two daughter four-momenta give the true parent invariant mass $M$:Since $\cosh u\ge 1$, $m_T\le M$, with equality at equal daughter rapidities when both transverse momenta are nonzero. Thus the unmeasured longitudinal information can enlarge the true invariant mass, but cannot lower it below this ideal transverse mass.

For an original example, stipulate $p_{T\ell }=p_{T\nu }=40\mathrm{GeV}$ and $\Delta \varphi =\pi$. Then $m_T=80\mathrm{GeV}$. Equal rapidities give $M=80\mathrm{GeV}$; choosing $y_{\ell }-y_{\nu }=1$ with exactly the same transverse readout gives $M=80\cosh (1/2)\simeq 90.210\mathrm{GeV}$. One measured transverse configuration therefore permits different true parent masses.

In natural units with unreduced Planck mass $M_P=G^{-1/2}$, the radiation-era Hubble parameter scales as $\sqrt{g_{\ast }}{T}^2/M_P$, while a low-energy weak interaction rate scales as $G_F^2{T}^5$. Their equality gives a decoupling scale of order one MeV. Distinct weak processes have distinct rate coefficients: neutrino decoupling and cosmological weak freeze-out of neutron-proton conversion are nearby events, not an identical precise temperature inferred from the power laws alone.