[Physics] Can proton disintegrate into fundamental particles on its own when its speed approaches that of light

inertial-framesmass-energyparticle-physicsproton-decayspecial-relativity

In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) the particles move close to the speed of light.

The LHC accelerates beams of particles, usually protons, around and
around a 17-mile ring until they reach 99.9999991 percent the speed of
light.

(Source)

Mass of proton: $1.6726219 \times 10^{-27}$.
At $99.9999991 \%$ speed of light, the total energy (kinetic energy plus rest energy) for a proton is:

$$
E=\frac{m c^{2}}{\sqrt[2]{1-\frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}}}=\frac{1.6726219 \times 10^{-27} \times\left(300000 \times 10^{3}\right)^{2}}{\sqrt[2]{1-\frac{\left(\frac{99.9999991}{100} \times 300000 \times 10^{3}\right)^{2}}{\left(300000 \times 10^{3}\right)^{2}}}}=1.122 \times 10^{-6} J
$$

As a proton is provided with more and more energy, it's energy will tend toward infinite energy. I understand that I've used a proton which is made up of more fundamental particles, i.e. quarks. Anyway, how are we so sure that as the proton gains more and more energy, it wouldn't break into more fundamental particles on its own without colliding into another particle? In other words, is it possible that as energy becomes quite large (or, as its speed tends closer to speed of light) the proton disintegrates into other stuff on its own. Though, electron is considered to be a fundamental particle, as science history is witness, one can never be too sure about it. Have they ever accelerated the proton to such speeds where its energy becomes, say, 2000 kJ?

Best Answer

Since the energy of a particle is frame dependent, it is not particularly meaningful to discuss the energy of a single particle, by itself. The reason for this is that one can find a reference frame where that particle has any arbitrary kinetic energy, and since the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames, we cannot have a proton disintegrate in one frame and continue existing in another. This is why the protons must collide with something else (another proton moving the opposite direction, in the case of the LHC) in order to produce an interesting reaction. As such, the more interesting quantity to look at is the energy of the collision, which is the same in all reference frames, given by the sum of the energies of the protons in the centre of mass frame.