We shall often be interested in cases where we transfer both energy and momentum from one particle to another, i.e., we have inelastic collisions where particles change their character – e.g., their rest-mass. If we have, as in Fig. 10.3 , two particles with energy-momentum and coming in, and two with and coming out, We know that since energy and momenta are conserved, that , which can be rearranged to give
(10.19) |
and shows energy and momentum getting transferred. This picture will occur quite often!