Saturday, February 20, 2016

special relativity - Proving the conservation of 4-momentum for a particle collision A+BtoC+D


Let me say that particle A hits particle B and two particles come out - C and D;


In system S I can write: pμA+pμB=pμC+pμD;

here pμN is the 4-momentum.


Using the Lorentz transformation I want to prove that energy and momentum are also conserved in frame S'. I rewrite (1) like that: pμA+pμBpμCpμD=0;(2)


Now I write something similar for the system S', except I do not know yet whether it's equal to zero: pμA+pμBpμCpμD=C;(3)


My goal is to find that C=0;


I know that for Lorentz transformations this holds true: pμ=Λμνpν;(4)


So if I put (4) into (3) , I get ΛμνpνA+ΛμνpνBΛμνpνCΛμνpνD=C;(5)


Now, this will be my question, if I consider each particle's transformation Λμν to be the same, I can bring out the common factor Λμν(pνA+pνBpνCpνD) (6) and inside the parentheses I have the same equation (2), thus C=0 and 4-momentum is conserved.


My questions are: 1) Why can I consider that Λμν is the same for every particle's transformation?



2) Also, is my method of proving the 4-momentum conservation alright, or am I doing something ineffectively?




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