Graduate When should rapidity or pseudorapidity be used for particle measurements?

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Rapidity is preferred for massive particles due to its Lorentz invariance, making it suitable for high-energy experiments like those at the LHC, particularly for particles such as J/ψ. Pseudorapidity, being a geometric measure, is applicable to all particles within a specific detector coverage, making it useful for massless particles. The distinction is significant for massive objects, especially jets and vector bosons, while hadrons are only considered in low-energy measurements. Tau leptons, at around 1.7 GeV, are generally not classified as massive for these purposes. Understanding when to use rapidity versus pseudorapidity is crucial for accurate particle measurements in high-energy physics.
ChrisVer
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I have one question, when should someone use rapidity y= 0.5 \ln \frac{E + p_z}{E - p_z} and when pseudorapidity \eta = -\frac{1}{2} \ln \tan \theta/2?
I've read that rapidity is used for "massive" particles... for experiments like LHC (or more specifically ATLAS), what threshold is considered massive?
I am sure that tau leptons (~1.7GeV) are not considered massive... however I recently read that for particles like J/ψ they use the rapidity... https://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3038
 
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Rapidity is almost Lorentz invariant - it shifts by a constant with a boost. Pseudorapidity is geometric - a detector that covers a particular psedorapidity region does so for all particles.
 
For massless particles, both are equivalent. For massive objects there is a difference. At ATLAS and CMS, massive objects are mainly jets and the vector bosons, hadrons only if the measurement happens at very low energy like in your linked example.
 

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