An evil gamma photon of energy is heading towards a spaceship. · OlympiadBench #863
Physics · modern-physics
Problem
An evil gamma photon of energy Eγ1=200keV is heading towards a spaceship. The commander's only choice is shooting another photon in the direction of the gamma photon such that they 'collide' head on and produce an electron-positron pair (both have mass me ). Find the lower bound on the energy Eγ2 of the photon as imposed by the principles of special relativity such that this occurs. Answer in keV.
Given constants:
- Proton mass, mp=1.67⋅10−27kg
- Neutron mass, mn=1.67⋅10−27kg
- Electron mass, me=9.11⋅10−31kg
- Avogadro's constant, N0=6.02⋅1023mol−1
- Universal gas constant, R=8.31J/(mol⋅K)
- Boltzmann's constant, kB=1.38⋅10−23J/K
- Electron charge magnitude, e=1.60⋅10−19C
- 1 electron volt, 1eV=1.60⋅10−19J
- Speed of light, c=3.00⋅108m/s
- Universal Gravitational constant,
G=6.67⋅10−11(N⋅m2)/kg2
- Solar Mass
M⊙=1.988⋅1030kg
- Acceleration due to gravity, g=9.8m/s2
- 1 unified atomic mass unit,
1u=1.66⋅10−27kg=931MeV/c2
- Planck's constant,
h=6.63⋅10−34J⋅s=4.41⋅10−15eV⋅s
- Permittivity of free space,
ϵ0=8.85⋅10−12C2/(N⋅m2)
- Coulomb's law constant,
k=4πϵ01=8.99⋅109(N⋅m2)/C2
- Permeability of free space,
μ0=4π⋅10−7T⋅m/A
- Magnetic constant,
4πμ0=1⋅10−7(T⋅m)/A
- 1 atmospheric pressure,
1atm=1.01⋅105N/m2=1.01⋅105Pa
- Wien's displacement constant, b=2.9. 10−3m⋅K
- Stefan-Boltzmann constant,
σ=5.67⋅10−8W/m2/K4