Module 3: Relativistic ED: applications
Lectures 1-2: Motion of charges in and fields
1. Relativistic equations of motion
Lorentz force and relativistic 3-momentum
  • We have seen in the last module (Relativity and Electrodynamics) that the equation of motion for a particle with charge e in an electromagnetic field is given by the Lorentz force law
(1)
  • This of course looks the same as the non-relativistic version, however here is the relativistic 3-momentum (the space-components of the 4-momentum)
(2)

where is the Lorentz boost.