Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 4 12B a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Use four-momentum with components , suppressing the identically zero third spatial component. The photon in the primed frame hasIts energy is and its spatial momentum has magnitude . Apply the same Lorentz transformation as for the spacetime coordinates. With ,The time component gives the relativistic Doppler effectThe aberration of light follows by dividing spatial components by :In particularwhere the tangent expression is understood only when its denominators exist. The sine and cosine equations determine the correct quadrant and also cover directions where the tangent/secant expression is undefined.
For the photon-number half-cone under relativistic aberration, the forward half of the primed emission angles is . The aberration of light is monotone on this interval, and its endpoints have . Thus exactly half of a uniform angular photon distribution lies within the lab-frame coneAs , , so the cone becomes narrow. Here “half” counts emitted photons or ray directions; it is not a claim that half of the observed energy or power lies there, since the relativistic Doppler effect changes the photon energies with angle.