Special Relativity – Relativistic Kinematics of Particle Accelerators

kinematicsparticle-physicsscatteringspecial-relativity

While reading these lectures I came across the following

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Putting together the first two formulae one reads $M=E_{cm}$, or equivalently, the centre of mass is always at rest. But is it true? It might be true for colliders, but certainly not for fixed-target experiments.

Best Answer

The invariant mass is equal to the total energy in the center-of-momentum reference frame. This does not mean that the center-of-momentum frame must coincide with the lab frame. Instead it means that it is possible in principle for the collision to produce a particle with mass $M$ which is at rest in the center-of-momentum frame. Particles less massive than $M$ can only be produced if there is some other particle to carry away the excess energy, and particles heavier than $M$ can only be produced virtually.

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