Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge / 2012 / Paper 1 / 1 / a / Solution

In the rest frame, conservation of energy would require $E_{\gamma }=m{c}^2$, whereas conservation of momentum would require the photon momentum to vanish. These contradict $|{\mathbf{p}}_{\gamma }|=E_{\gamma }/c$. More generally, four-momentum conservation would equate the initial massive four-momentum to a null four-momentum, although their Minkowski norms differ:An isolated massive particle cannot decay into one photon in any inertial frame. Directly, a laboratory speed $u<c$ gives $E=\gamma m{c}^2$ and $|\mathbf{p}|=\gamma mu$; matching a photon would require $E=c|\mathbf{p}|$, hence $u=c$. Recoil against another object could change the kinematics, but would introduce an additional participant.