A pion at rest decays into a muon and a neutrino . If the muon's lifetime on its rest frame is it will move a distance
before disintegrating, where and are the lowest possible natural numbers. Find .
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Let us utilise the momentum four-vector equation for the collision. p π = ( m π c , 0 , 0 , 0 ) , p μ = ( m c , γ μ m μ v , 0 , 0 ) , and p ν = ( m ν c , γ ν m ν , 0 , 0 ) . Now the conservation law gives p π − p μ = p ν Squaring both sides, p π 2 + p μ 2 − 2 p π ⋅ p μ = p ν 2 Solving this by plugging the initial values I had stated gives m π 2 + m μ 2 − 2 γ μ m π m μ = m ν 2 But the rest mass of the neutrino is very small compared to others, and can be neglected. Yielding: γ μ = 2 m π m μ m π 2 + m μ 2 The distance covered by the muon in the frame of the earth is L = v τ γ μ , with v = c 1 − 1 / γ μ 2 , thus giving L = c τ γ μ 2 − 1 = 2 1 ⋅ m π m μ m π 2 + m μ 2 Therefore A B = 2