Past exam of the symmetry and relativity course of the University of Oxford / 2016 / 4 / c / b

In a transparent uniform medium, constructive phase interference along the trajectory requires $\omega -\mathbf{k}\cdot \mathbf{v}=0$. Since $k=n\omega /c$, the Cherenkov cone angle obeysHere $n\beta =2\sqrt{1-10^{-4}}>1$, so emission is allowed andThe electron is not an isolated vacuum particle: it interacts with the dielectric polarization of the medium. Here the angle describes the photon direction relative to the trajectory; the conical wavefront surface has the complementary angle.

This angle is the classical or negligible-recoil result. At finite photon energy, energy-momentum bookkeeping in a nondispersive medium gives a recoil correction proportional to $\hslash \omega /E$; no photon frequency is supplied for such a correction. In a dispersive medium use $n(\omega )$ separately for each transparent frequency band.