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    Special Relativity: PH217: Aug-Dec 2003

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    Gautam Mondal
    The document summarizes key concepts from special relativity. It describes the Lorentz transformations which relate measurements between two frames in relative motion. It also discusses Lorentz contraction, time dilation, velocity transformations, energy-momentum relationships, and the Doppler shift formula. The Doppler shift formula relates the observed frequency of light to the motion and emission frequency of the source.

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    Special Relativity: PH217: Aug-Dec 2003

    Uploaded by

    Gautam Mondal
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    The document summarizes key concepts from special relativity. It describes the Lorentz transformations which relate measurements between two frames in relative motion. It also discusses Lorentz contraction, time dilation, velocity transformations, energy-momentum relationships, and the Doppler shift formula. The Doppler shift formula relates the observed frequency of light to the motion and emission frequency of the source.

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    Astrophysics 1

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    sprel

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    The document summarizes key concepts from special relativity. It describes the Lorentz transformations which relate measurements between two frames in relative motion. It also discusses Lorentz contraction, time dilation, velocity transformations, energy-momentum relationships, and the Doppler shift formula. The Doppler shift formula relates the observed frequency of light to the motion and emission frequency of the source.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    20 views3 pages

    Special Relativity: PH217: Aug-Dec 2003

    Uploaded by

    Gautam Mondal
    The document summarizes key concepts from special relativity. It describes the Lorentz transformations which relate measurements between two frames in relative motion. It also discusses Lorentz contraction, time dilation, velocity transformations, energy-momentum relationships, and the Doppler shift formula. The Doppler shift formula relates the observed frequency of light to the motion and emission frequency of the source.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    PH217: Aug-Dec 2003 1

    Special Relativity
    This is a reminder of the basic results of Special Relativity that we need to use
    during this course.

    Lorentz Transformation

    The four-dimensional coordinate transformation that links two frames moving


    with a velocity relative to each other is called the Lorentz transformation. If the
      
    frame K (x y z t ) moves with relative velocity V in the positive x direction
      
    with respect to the frame K (x y z t), then the transformation laws between the
    two sets of coordinates are

    x  (x Vt )  y  y z  z t  (t V


    x)
    c2
    where c is the speed of light in vacuum and

     1
    1 V 2 c2

    is called the Lorentz Factor.

    The inverse transformations can be obtained by replacing V with V.


    From the above transformations follow the Lorentz contraction of length in the
    direction of the relative velocity:

    L  L 0
    where L0 is the length in the rest frame of the object, and time dilation
    t  t0

    where t0 is the time interval in the rest frame of the clock.
    PH217: Aug-Dec 2003 2

    Transformation of velocities

       
     
    if u(ux uy uz ) and u (u x uy uz ) represent the velocity of the same particle in the
    frames K and K respectively, then noting that u x dx dt, u x dx dt and so on

    for other components, one finds the transformation rule


    
    ux  
           
    ux V uy uz
    u x V
    c2 )

    uy uz
    1 u x V c2 (1 (1 u x V c2 )

    In the case of motion parallel to the x-axis this reduces to


    
    u  u V
    1 u V c2

    It is easily seen that if u equals c, then it does so in all frames irrespective of their
    relative velocities.

    Let us choose the coordinate system such that the velocity u (u ) of the particle
    lies in the xy (x y ) plane in frame K (K ). If and denote the angle with respect
    to the x (x ) axis in the frames K and K respectively, then from the velocity
    transformation law one obtains

      u sin 
    tan
    (u cos V)
    which describes the change in the direction of the velocity on transformation be-
    tween the two reference systems.

    Setting u  c one then obtains the law of aberration:

      sin 
    tan
    (cos V c)

    In terms of sines and cosines, the law of aberration is


    

    sin   
    
    c)  cos 
    sin cos Vc
    (1 V cos

    1 V cos c
    PH217: Aug-Dec 2003 3

    Energy and Momentum

    The momentum of a particle in special relativity is given by

    
    p u m0 u
    where m0 is the rest mass of the particle, and
     u  1
    1

    u2 c2

    The energy E is given by


    E2  p2 c2
     m20 c4
    one can construct a four-vector out of the two: the four momentum

    pi 
    
    (E c p)

    In case of electromagnetic waves, the analogous quantity is the 4-dimensional

     
    
    wave vector
    ki ( c k)
    Transformation of this four vector gives the Doppler shift relation

       
    
    c)
    0
    (1 V cos
    where V is the velocity of the source which emits radiation at a frequency 0 as 
    
    measured in the rest frame of the source. is the angle (as measured by the ob-
    server) between the direction of emission of the wave and the direction of motion
    of the source.

    Reference

    Landau, L. D. and Lifshitz, E.M., The Classical Thoery of Fields, chapters 1, 6.

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