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Published on: April 13, 2016
Teaching about the relativistic background of synchrotron radiation: some intriguing aspects with strong didactic
1Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
Abstract:
Not fully grasping the concepts of relativity can lead to misunderstandings about the fundamental background of synchrotron emission. Here we deal with some intriguing cases, in which the relevant `speed of light' is not the invariant c but the speed with respect to a moving object. This specifically affects two pillars of synchrotron radiation: the Lorentz length contraction and the Doppler shift. We propose a teaching strategy relying on new versions of simple `thought' experiments. Besides putting synchrotron radiation on solid foundations, the approach amazingly leads to a unique link-described by Einstein as `remarkable'-between special relativity and quantum mechanics.
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