The solution at revision #18580 of , by jzmicer. This is not the current version.

Statement

14.5.14∗. The mass and momentum of a state obtained when a state with mass and zero momentum moves with velocity are and , . Prove this statement for a state in which two non-interacting particles are moving.

Solution

As in many other problems in this section, the author considers mass to be a measure of total energy. Then, let the center-of-mass system of two particles

: It follows from this that the sum of the projections of the momenta on any axis is equal to 0

Now, using the Lorentz transformations, we move to a system moving with velocity along the axis. For each particle, we can write:

Summing, we obtain:



Concidering ,

Which is what we needed.

Answer