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arXiv:1509.06710 · Advances in High Energy Physics

On the Velocity of Moving Relativistic Unstable Quantum Systems

K. Urbanowski

Published Jan 1, 2015• 3 citations
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Abstract

We study properties of moving relativistic quantum unstable systems. We show that in contrast to the properties of classical particles and quantum stable objects the velocity of freely moving relativistic quantum unstable systems cannot be constant in time. We show that this new quantum effect results from the fundamental principles of the quantum theory and physics: it is a consequence of the principle of conservation of energy and of the fact that the mass of the quantum unstable system is not defined. This effect can affect the form of the decay law of moving relativistic quantum unstable systems.

DOI
10.1155/2015/461987

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We study properties of moving relativistic quantum unstable systems. We show that in contrast to the properties of classical particles and quantum stable objects the velocity of freely moving relativistic quantum unstable systems cannot be constant in time. We show that this new quantum effect results from the fundamental principles of the quantum theory and physics: it is a consequence of the principle of conservation of energy and of the fact that the mass of the quantum unstable system is not defined. This effect can affect the form of the decay law of moving relativistic quantum unstable systems.
The relativistic quantum decay laws of moving unstable particles are analyzed for a general class of mass distribution densities which behave as power laws near the (nonvanishing) lower bound μ0 of the mass spectrum. The survival probability Pp(t) , the instantaneous mass Mp(t) , and the instantaneous decay rate Γp(t) of the moving unstable particle are evaluated over short and long times for an arbitrary value p of the (constant) linear momentum. The ultrarelativistic and nonrelativistic limits are studied. Over long times, the survival probability Pp(t) is approximately related to the survival probability at rest P0(t) by a scaling law. The scaling law can be interpreted as the effect of the relativistic time dilation if the asymptotic value Mp∞ of the instantaneous mass is considered as the effective mass of the unstable particle over long times. The effective mass has magnitude μ0 at rest and moves with linear momentum p or, equivalently, with constant velocity 1/1+μ02/p2 . The instantaneous decay rate Γp(t) is approximately independent of the linear momentum p , over long times, and, consequently, is approximately invariant by changing reference frame.
Relativistic quantum theory shows that the known Einstein time dilation (ED) approximately holds for the decay law of the unstable particle having definite momentum p (DP). I use a different definition of the moving particle as the state with definite velocity v (DV). It is shown that in this case the decay law is not dilated. On the contrary, it is contracted as compared with the decay law of the particle at rest. It is demonstrated that ED fails in both DP and DV cases for time evolution of the simple unstable system of the kind of oscillating neutrino. Experiments are known which show that ED holds for mesons. The used theory may explain the fact by supposing that the measured mesons are in DP state.
Late time properties of moving relativistic particles are studied. Within the proper relativistic treatment of the problem we find decay curves of such particles and we show that late time deviations of the survival probability of these particles from the exponential form of the decay law, that is the transition times region between exponential and non-exponential form of the survival amplitude, occur much earlier than it follows from the classical standard approach boiled down to replace time t by t/γL (where γL is the relativistic Lorentz factor) in the formula for the survival probability. The consequence is that fluctuations of the corresponding decay curves can appear much earlier and much more unstable particles have a chance to survive up to these times or later. It is also shown that fluctuations of the instantaneous energy of the moving unstable particles have a similar form as the fluctuations in the particle rest frame but they are seen by the observer in his rest system much earlier than one could expect replacing t by t/γL in the corresponding expressions for this energy and that the amplitude of these fluctuations can be even larger than it follows from the standard approach. All these effects seem to be important when interpreting some accelerator experiments with high energy unstable particles and the like (possible connections of these effects with GSI anomaly are analyzed) and some results of astrophysical observations.
Abstract The transformation of canonical decay laws of moving unstable quantum systems is derived from the basic principles of quantum theory and special relativity by approximating, over intermediate times, the decay laws at rest with superpositions of exponential modes via the Prony analysis. The survival probability , which is detected in the laboratory reference frame where the unstable system moves with constant linear momentum p , is represented by the transformed form of the survival probability at rest . The transformation of the intermediate times, which is induced by the change of reference frame, is obtained by evaluating the function . Under determined conditions, this function grows linearly and the survival probability transforms, approximately, according to a scaling law over an estimated time window. The relativistic dilation of times holds, approximately, over the time window if the mass of resonance of the mass distribution density is considered to be the effective mass at rest of the moving unstable quantum system.
We study the survival probability of moving relativistic unstable particles with definite momentum p⃗≠0\vec{p} \neq 0p​=0. The amplitude of the survival probability of these particles is calculated using its integral representation. We found decay curves of such particles for the quantum mechanical models considered. These model studies show that late time deviations of the survival probability of these particles from the exponential form of the decay law, that is the transition times region between exponential and non-expo\-nen\-tial form of the survival probability, should occur much earlier than it follows from the classical standard approach resolving itself into replacing time ttt by t/γt/γt/γ (where γγγ is the relativistic Lorentz factor) in the formula for the survival probability and that the survival probabilities should tend to zero as t→∞t\rightarrow \inftyt→∞ much slower than one would expect using classical time dilation relation. Here we show also that for some physically admissible models of unstable states the computed decay curves of the moving particles have fluctuating form at relatively short times including times of order of the lifetime.
Results presented in a recent paper "Which is the Quantum Decay Law of Relativistic particles?", arXiv: 1412.3346v2 [quant--ph]], are analyzed. We show that approximations used therein to derive the main final formula for the survival probability of finding a moving unstable particle to be undecayed at time ttt force this particle to almost stop moving, that is that, in fact, the derived formula is approximately valid only for γ≅1γ\cong 1γ≅1, where γ=1/1−β2γ= 1/\sqrt{1-β^{2}}γ=1/1−β2​ and β=v/cβ= v/cβ=v/c, or in other words, for the velocity v≃0v \simeq 0v≃0.