Compute Limit of 4-Vectors: p and q

  • Thread starter Thread starter parton
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Computation Limit
parton
Messages
79
Reaction score
1
I've the following problem. I have two four-vectors p and q where p is timelike (p^{2} > 0) and q is spacelike(q^{2} < 0).
Now I should consider the quantity

- \dfrac{2 (pq)^{2} + p^{2} q^{2}}{q^{2}}

and compute the limit q \to 0.

But I don't know how to perform the limit procedure. Could anyone help me please?

I already tried to consider the problem in a special frame with p=(p^{0}, \vec{0}) but it doesn't help.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Can you show some more detail of the work you did?
 
My attempt so far was not successfully. I considered a special frame where p = \left( p^{0}, \vec{0} \right) which is possible, because p is timelike. Furthermore I defined q = (0, \epsilon, \epsilon, \epsilon). This will lead to:

- \dfrac{2 (pq)^{2} + p^{2} q^{2}}{q^{2}} = - p_{0}^{2}

and for arbitrary p we should have: - p^{2}.

But somehow I don't think that I can specify q in this way. Another choice of q, e.g. q = (\epsilon, \epsilon, \epsilon, \epsilon) would lead to a vanishing contribution = 0, so I don't know how to compute the considered quantity. Obviously it depends on the choice of q.

Any idea how to do that?
 
I've one further information, but I don't know if it helps: (p-q) \in V^{+}.

So, I also tried to consider a special frame where
p-q = (p^{0} - q^{0}, \vec{0}).

Which leads to \vec{p} = \vec{q} and therefore:

- \dfrac{2 (pq)^{2} + p^{2} q^{2}}{q^{2}} = - \dfrac{2 (p^{0} q^{0} - \vec{p} \, ^{2})^{2} + p^{2} (q_{0}^{2} - \vec{p} \, ^{2})}{q_{0} - \vec{p} \, ^{2}} \simeq 2 \vec{p} \, ^{2} - p^{2}

Then I rewrite the last \vec{p} \, ^{2} into \vec{p} \cdot \vec{q} and finally obtain (again): -p^{2}.

But it appears questionable to do the computation like this.

Could anyone help me please?
 
Pephaps the identity (p+q)2 = p2 + q2 +2pq might be of help.
 
... it does not really help
 
Hello everyone, I’m considering a point charge q that oscillates harmonically about the origin along the z-axis, e.g. $$z_{q}(t)= A\sin(wt)$$ In a strongly simplified / quasi-instantaneous approximation I ignore retardation and take the electric field at the position ##r=(x,y,z)## simply to be the “Coulomb field at the charge’s instantaneous position”: $$E(r,t)=\frac{q}{4\pi\varepsilon_{0}}\frac{r-r_{q}(t)}{||r-r_{q}(t)||^{3}}$$ with $$r_{q}(t)=(0,0,z_{q}(t))$$ (I’m aware this isn’t...
Hi, I had an exam and I completely messed up a problem. Especially one part which was necessary for the rest of the problem. Basically, I have a wormhole metric: $$(ds)^2 = -(dt)^2 + (dr)^2 + (r^2 + b^2)( (d\theta)^2 + sin^2 \theta (d\phi)^2 )$$ Where ##b=1## with an orbit only in the equatorial plane. We also know from the question that the orbit must satisfy this relationship: $$\varepsilon = \frac{1}{2} (\frac{dr}{d\tau})^2 + V_{eff}(r)$$ Ultimately, I was tasked to find the initial...
Back
Top