Physics 8.

962:Problem Set 2
Due 2/24/12
1. The electromagnetic current J for a group of particles with trajectories xn ( ) and charges en is dx (n ) (4) J (x) = dn en n (x xn ( )) dn n .Show that J = 0. 2. The energy momentum tensor for a group of particles each with trajectories xn ( ) four momentum p (n ) is n 1 T (x) = dn p (n ) p (n ) (4) (x xn ( )) n mn n n .Show that if there are no forces on the particles T = 0. 3. Let B ( ) be a Lorentz boost associated with a 3-velocity . Consider v v B (1 ) B (2 ) B (1 ) B (2 ) v v v v ,where 1 2 = 0. Assume |1 | 1,|2 | 1. v v v v Show that is a rotation. What is the axis of rotation? What is the angle of rotation? 4. Schutz p.53, problem 21. The world line of a particle is described by the parametric equations in some Lorentz frame t () = a sinh , x () = a cosh , a a

where is the parameter and a is a constant. Describe the motion and compute the particles four-velocity and acceleration components. Show that is proper time along the world line and that the acceleration is uniform. Interpret a.

5. Schutz p.54, problem 25. (a) Let frame O move with speed v in the x-direction relative to O. Let a photon have frequency in O and move at an angle with respect to Os x axis. Show that its frequency in O is (1 v cos ) = . 1 v2 1

(b) Even when the motion of the photon is perpendicular to the x axis ( = /2) there is a frequency shift. This is called the transverse Doppler shift, and arise because of the time dilation. At what angle does the photon have to move so that there is no Doppler shift between O amd O? 6. Schutz p.54 problem 32. Let a particle of charge e and rest mass m, initially at rest in the laboratory, scatter a photon of initial frequency i . This is called Compton scattering. Suppose the scattered photon comes o at an angle from the incident direction. Use conservation of fourmomentum to deduce that the photons nal frequency f is given by 1 1 1 cos = +h . f i m 7. An innitely long wire lies along the z axis in frame F . There is a current I owing down the wire in the positive z direction. Find the electric and magnetic elds in frame F . Frame F is moving along the positive z direction with speed v. Find the electric and magnetic elds in frame F . Now imagine that the current as seen in frame F is actually made of positively charged particles moving in positive z with speed v and negatively charged particles moving in the opposite direction, also with speed v. Describe what the current looks like in frame F and explain your results for the electric and magnetic elds in this frame. 8. Consider the four dimensional delta function (4) (x). Show that (4) (x) = (4) (x) where is a Lorentz transformation. 9. Let 1 if ,,, is an even permutation of 0,1,2,3 = 1 if ,,, is an odd permutation of 0,1,2,3 0 otherwise

.Show that is an invariant tensor.