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Use momentum conservation and conservation of energy in the laboratory inertial frame. The photon has momentum magnitude $E/c$, while the outgoing Electron satisfies the relativistic energy-momentum relation. Its total energy and momentum obeySubstitute these into $E_e^2=m^2{c}^4+c^2|{\mathbf{p}}_e{|}^2$. Cancelling $m^2{c}^4$ and $(E_1-E_2{)}^2$ gives $m{c}^2(E_1-E_2)=E_1{E}_2(1-\cos \theta )$. Both photon energies are positive, so division yieldsThis is Compton scattering. The energies include the Electron's rest energy; using only its kinetic energy in the mass-shell equation would give the wrong result. The outgoing photon has unchanged energy at $\theta =0$ and smaller energy for a nonzero scattering angle.

The four-momentum isThusMultiplication by $c$ identifies the first two terms as the rest energy $m{c}^2$ and the Newtonian kinetic energy $m|\mathbf{u}{|}^2/2$.

For the fixed-target reaction, the initial invariant isAt threshold the four final particles are at rest in their centre-of-momentum frame, giving invariant $(4mc{)}^2$. Hence $\gamma =7$ and the least laboratory speed is

Use the Minkowski metric ${\eta }_{mn}=\mathrm{diag}(-1,1,\dots ,1)$ and units with speed of light one. The contractions are $P^2={\eta }^{mn}{P}_m{P}_n$ and $(T{X}^{\prime }{)}^2=T^2{\eta }_{mn}(X^m{)}^{\prime }(X^n{)}^{\prime }$; $(X^m{)}^{\prime }{P}_m$ and ${\dot{X}}^m{P}_m$ pair a vector with a covector without another metric. The Lagrange multipliers impose the two first-class constraintsThey generate worldsheet diffeomorphisms, so the phase space contains both constrained directions and gauge redundancy. Two first-class constraints remove two canonical pairs, leaving $D-2$ physical degrees of freedom per point.

In Monge gauge, $X^0=t$ and $X^1=\sigma$. Write the transverse canonical variables as $\mathbf{X}=(X^2,\dots ,X^{D-1})$ and $\mathbf{P}=(P_2,\dots ,P_{D-1})$. Solving the first-class constraints givesThe negative root selects positive energy. Substitution into the phase-space action gives the Hamiltonian reductionFor a static segment, $\mathbf{P}=0$, its proper length element is $d\ell =\sqrt{1+|{\mathbf{X}}^{\prime }{|}^2}d\sigma$, and $\mathcal{E}d\sigma =Td\ell$. Thus the string tension is the rest energy per unit proper length. In particular a straight resting segment has $\mathcal{E}=T$. Monge gauge is a local choice on a string embedding map for which $X^1$ is a valid coordinate; it need not cover folded strings or all endpoint configurations.