What is 4-momentum: Definition and 39 Discussions

In special relativity, four-momentum is the generalization of the classical three-dimensional momentum to four-dimensional spacetime. Momentum is a vector in three dimensions; similarly four-momentum is a four-vector in spacetime. The contravariant four-momentum of a particle with relativistic energy E and three-momentum p = (px, py, pz) = γmv, where v is the particle's three-velocity and γ the Lorentz factor, is




p
=

(


p

0


,

p

1


,

p

2


,

p

3



)

=

(



E
c


,

p

x


,

p

y


,

p

z



)

.


{\displaystyle p=\left(p^{0},p^{1},p^{2},p^{3}\right)=\left({E \over c},p_{x},p_{y},p_{z}\right).}
The quantity mv of above is ordinary non-relativistic momentum of the particle and m its rest mass. The four-momentum is useful in relativistic calculations because it is a Lorentz covariant vector. This means that it is easy to keep track of how it transforms under Lorentz transformations.
The above definition applies under the coordinate convention that x0 = ct. Some authors use the convention x0 = t, which yields a modified definition with p0 = E/c2. It is also possible to define covariant four-momentum pμ where the sign of the energy (or the sign of the three-momentum, depending of the chosen metric signature) is reversed.

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