Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Scientific paper
2001-02-20
Am.J.Phys.69:837-847,2001
Physics
High Energy Physics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
20 pages, plain LaTeX, no figures, no macros, no style sheets
Scientific paper
10.1119/1.1371010
We review why the Thomas rotation is a crucial facet of special relativity, that is just as fundamental, and just as "unintuitive" and "paradoxical", as such traditional effects as length contraction, time dilation, and the ambiguity of simultaneity. We show how this phenomenon can be quite naturally introduced and investigated in the context of a typical introductory course on special relativity, in a way that is appropriate for, and completely accessible to, undergraduate students. We also demonstrate, in a more advanced section aimed at the graduate student studying the Dirac equation and relativistic quantum field theory, that careful consideration of the Thomas rotation will become vital as modern experiments in particle physics continue to move from unpolarized to polarized cross-sections.
Costella John P.
McKellar Bruce H. J.
Rawlinson Andrew A.
Stephenson Gerard J. Jr.
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