PHYS 5302, a + b → c + d, Relativistic Kinematics

In fig. 1 we imagine two particles of rest masses ma and mb which enter an

interaction region indicated by the box. Two particles mc and md emerge from
the box. The momenta of the four particles are measured far from the interaction
region. There are no external forces acting on the particles, consequently the
total energy of the system, E0 , and the total momentum, P~0 , are conserved.

E0 = Ea + Eb (1a)
P~0 = p~a + p~b (1b)

We must use relativistic expressions for energy and momentum to get an ac-
curate description of the kinematics. These expressions are found in Jackson’s
book, section 11.5. If we are given the initial momenta, p~a and p~b and find that
particle mc is emerging from the interaction region at angles θc and φc we will
employ the conservation of energy and momentum to calculate the magnitude
of pc and the vector momentum p~d .

Conceptually we know that energy and momentum are conserved because

there are no external forces on the particles. There is a somewhat messy algebra
to deal with but we’ll end up with a set of equations that can be coded into
software. We start with two fundamental equations for the final state c + d.
From 1a we obtain

E0 = Ec + Ed = (p2c + m2c ) + (p2d + m2d )

p p
(2)

From 1b we obtain
P~0 = p~c + p~d (3)
The next step is to apply equations 2 and 3 in order to get two equations that
isolate p2
d
p2 ~ ~
d = (P0 − p~c ) · (P0 − p~c ) (4)
and
p2
p 2
d = (E0 − (pc + m2c ))2 − m2d (5)
In equation 4 there is a critical factor, cos(θ0c ), from the dot product. Because
we know the directions of P~0 and p~c we know cos(θ0c ).

P0 pc P̂0 · p̂c
cos(θ0c ) = = P̂0 · p̂c . (6)
P0 p c

We set equation 4 equal to 5. There are many terms but we can come to a
quadratic equation in pc . Once we know the magnitude of p~c we can use 3 to
get p~d .
If you do the algebra from this point we determine pc in equation 7d. The
other terms in equations 7 are collection of terms in the algebraic steps to

1
Figure 1: Two particles a and b interact with each other in an interaction region
and emerge as particles c and d

simplify the final quadratic equation for pc .

A = E02 + m2c − m2d − P02 (7a)

AP0 cos(θ0c )
∆= (7b)
2(E0 − P02 cos2 (θ0c ))
2

A2 − 4E02 m2c
Γ= (7c)
4(E02 − P02 cos2 (θ0c ))
pc = ∆ ± (Γ + ∆2 )
p
(7d)