Photon excitation threshold with a soft final photon ($E_{\mathrm{th}}=(M^2-m^2)c^2/(2m)$)

A photon hitting a resting mass $m$ has squared total energy invariant $m^2{c}^4+2m{c}^{2}E$. Producing a larger mass $M$ and an outgoing photon requires this invariant to exceed $M^2{c}^4$ if the photon has positive energy. The displayed threshold is therefore the limiting infimum as the final photon becomes soft, not an attained physical state with a zero-energy photon. Above threshold the outgoing photon energy in the centre-of-momentum frame is positive.