Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / ia / Paper 4 / 11A (Dynamics and Relativity)

By Newton's second law, force is mass times acceleration. Hence its dimensions are

The electric field is force per unit electric charge, so

Write $E=|\mathbf{E}|$ and $\hat{\mathbf{E}}=\mathbf{E}/E$. The constant electric force gives momentumCombining $\mathbf{p}=\gamma m\dot{\mathbf{x}}$ with the relativistic energy-momentum relation givesThe dimensional analysis from part (a) confirms that $qEt$ has the dimensions of momentum, so $qEt/(mc)$ is dimensionless and the expression has the dimensions of velocity.

The speed increases monotonically from zero and approaches the speed of light asymptotically:Integrating in the direction of the field givesAt small times, the Taylor expansion of the square root gives the nonrelativistic limitwhich is motion from rest with the constant acceleration $q\mathbf{E}/m$.

At time $t_0$, the accelerated proton has momentum $p=qE{t}_0$ and, by the relativistic energy-momentum relation, energyThe incident Cosmic microwave background photon adds energy $E_{\gamma }$. Since the final state contains only the Delta-plus baryon, conservation of relativistic energy gives its laboratory-frame Lorentz factorIts rest-frame decay time $t_{\Delta }$ is a proper time, so time dilation gives the laboratory decay time