Course 241, Advanced Mechanics Problem Set 15

Read the paper by O. Gron, The twin paradox in the theory of relativity, published in Eur. J. Phys. 27 (2006) 885-889 The paper is available on-line, www.iop.org/EJ/article/0143-0807/27/4/019/ejp6 4 019.pdf or, just google, The twin paradox in the theory of relativity Problem 1 a) Find the Hamiltonian and Hamiltons equations of motion for a charge e moving in a constant uniform electric eld E described by the following action
t2

S=
t1

dt mc2

v2 + e rE c2

Then, take the direction of the eld as the y -axis, and the momentum at t = 0 to be p0 = (0, 0, p0 ). b) Obtain the equation of the trajectory, and sketch its plot. c) Find the trajectory if the velocity of the particle is v c. Problem 2 Prove that in the theory of relativity the sum of two velocities each smaller than the velocity of light is again not greater than the light velocity. Problem 3 The electric, E, and magnetic, B, eld strengths are components of the electromagnetic eld tensor Fij 0 Ex Ey Ez Ex 0 Bz By . Fij = Ey Bz 0 Bx Ez By Bx 0 Find the law of transformation of the components of E and B under Lorentz transformations in the x0 x1 -plane.