Past exam of the physics 1 paper of the University of Oxford / 2017 resit / 4 / Solution

In the pion rest frame, momentum conservation makes the muon and neutrino momenta opposite, with common magnitude $p$. For a massless neutrino, $E_{\nu }=pc$; energy conservation and the relativistic energy-momentum relation giveSubstitute $pc=m_{\pi }{c}^2-E_{\mu }$ into the second equation. The $E_{\mu }^2$ terms cancel, leavingFor completeness, the complementary relativistic two-body decay energy is $E_{\nu }=(m_{\pi }^2-m_{\mu }^2)c^2/(2m_{\pi })$. The result is a total energy, including the muon rest energy, rather than its kinetic energy.