Assignment-3: Classical Mechanics

Solutions

1. (a) Let the velocity of the particle at infinity be v∞ and let the impact
parameter be b. Thus, the energy and angular momentum are:
1 2
E = mv∞ , L = mbv∞
2
We have the equation for the scattering angle

θ = |π − 2φ0 | (1.1)

where Z ∞
b/r2 dr
φ0 = p
rmin 1 − (b2 /r2 ) − (2U/mv∞
2 )

Here rmin is the zero of the radicand. Substituting U = α/r2 , one easily
obtains
bπ
φ0 = p
2 b2 + 2α/mv∞ 2

Together with (1.1), this gives b as a function of θ as

k
b(θ) = q (1.2)
π 2
( π−θ ) −1
p
where k = 2α/mv∞ 2 . The scattering ‘cross-section’ (we are calculating in

4 space dimensions) is given by

 
 
2  db 
dσ = 4πb   dθ
dθ

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By substituting (1.2) in the above expression, we find the differential scatting
cross section as a function of the scattering angle as

dσ 4π 3 k 3 (π − θ)2
=
dθ ((2π − θ)θ)5/2

(b) In the center of mass frame, the problem is same as above, but with a
reduced mass, µ = m/2. It then remains to convert the scattering angle
calculated above into the lab frame, for which we use the formulae 17.9 and
17.10 from Landau-Lifshitz. The formulae are
1 1
θ1 = θ, θ2 = (π − θ)
2 2
Where θ1 and θ2 are the lab frame scattering angles of particles 1 and 2
respectively. After the collision the particles move at right angles to each
other. One finds that b as a function of θ1 and θ2 is
(π − θ1 )k
b(θ1 ) = p
2 (π − θ1 )θ1
2θ2 k
b(θ2 ) = p
(π 2 − 4θ22 )

This gives the lab frame scattering cross sections as

dσ π 3 k 3 (π − 2θ1 )2
= (1.3a)
dθ1 4((π − θ1 )θ1 )5/2
dσ 32π 3 k 3 θ22
= 2 (1.3b)
dθ2 (π − 4θ22 )5/2

(c) The lab frame final velocities of the particles are given by formulae 17.10
of Landau-Lifshitz. These can be used to compute the scattering cross section
in terms of the final energies (lab-frame) of the particles.

v10 = v∞ cos θ1 , v20 = v∞ cos θ2

dσ dσ
Expressing E1 = mv12 /2 and E2 = mv22 /2 one can find dE1
and dE2
by

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substituting in (1.3a) and (1.3b) respectively. One obtains
 p 2
−1
dσ π 3 3
k π − 2 cos E 1 /E
= p  p  p 5/2
dE1
8 (E − E1 )E1 π − cos −1 E1 /E cos −1 E1 /E

 p 2
3 3 −1
dσ 16π k cos E2 /E
=p   2 
dE2 p
(E − E2 )E2 π 2 − 4 cos−1 E2 /E

2. (a) The conservation of momentum in the center of mass frame can be

used to to get
m1
v2 = − v1
m2
(b) The lab frame kinetic energy of particle with mass m1 is simply given by
m1
E1 = (v1 + V)2
2
(c) Using the above expression, we can write
m1 2
E1 = (v + V 2 + 2v1 V cos θ)
2 1
where θ is the angle between the direction of daughter particle m1 and V in
the center of mass frame. The largest and smallest values this kinetic energy
can take is clearly
m1
E1max = (v1 + V )2
2
m1
E1min = (v1 − V )2
2
Let P (θ) be the probability that the particle is emitted between θ and θ + dθ.
Since the particles are emitted isotropically in the center-of-mass frame, this
is given by
p


ΩS p−2 1 Γ 2
P (θ) = sin θdθ = √
p−2

p−3 θd(cos θ)
p−1 sin
ΩS p−1 πΓ 2

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where ΩS p is the ‘surface area’ of the unit (p − 1)-sphere (S p−1 ). Using cos θ
as a function of energy, i.e.
2E1
dE1 m1
−v12 −V 2
d(cos θ) = , cos θ = 2v1 V
m1 v1 V
We get thus
 !2 1/2
2E1
− −V
v12 2
sin θ = 1 − m 
2v1 V

Using the above expressions, one can easily obtain the desired formula for
the probability distribution of the kinetic energy of the particle m1 in the lab
frame.

3. The equations of motion for this system are

ẍ + ω12 x = −4λ(x + y)3

ÿ + ω22 y = −4λ(x + y)3

We first analyze the case when ω1 and ω2 are not rationally related. We write
out the solutions as follows

x = a1  cos ω1 t + 3 x(3)
y = a2  cos ω2 t + 3 y (3)

where the relevant higher order terms are shown with  as the small param-
eter. The correction to the frequency is
(0) (2)
ω1 = ω1 + ω1
(0) (2)
ω2 = ω2 + ω2

indicating that the correction to the frequency is at O(2 ) when we wish to

correct the solution at O(3 ). One can check that the O() correction to the
(1)
frequency, ω1 = 0, and this consequently gives the O(2 ) correction to the
solution also to be 0.
Plugging in the above expansion and retaining terms up to O(3 ), one finds

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the following equations for x(3) (and similarly for y (3) )
(0) (0) (2)
ẍ(3) + (ω1 )2 x(3) = (2ω1 ω1 a1 − 3λa31 − 6λa1 a22 ) cos ω1 t − λa31 cos 3ω1 t
− 3λa1 a22 (cos(2ω2 + ω1 )t + cos(2ω2 − ω1 )t)
− 3λa21 a2 (cos(2ω1 + ω2 )t + cos(2ω1 − ω2 )t + 2 cos ω2 t)
− λa32 (cos 3ω2 t + 3 cos ω2 t)

Setting the coefficient of the resonance term cos ω1 t to zero we find the second
(2)
correction to the frequency ω1 as

(2) λ(3a21 + 6a22 )

ω1 = (0)
2ω1

Solving the inhomogeneous linear equation, we find the following particular

integral and hence the O(3 ) correction to the x solution as

!
λ  a 3
cos 3ω 1 t 6a 1 a 2
cos(2ω 2 − ω 1 )t cos(2ω 2 + ω 1 )t
x(3) =  1 2 +
2
(0)
+ (0)
8
ω1
(0) ω2 (ω2 − ω1 ) (ω2 + ω1 )

cos(ω2 − 2ω1 )t cos(ω2 + 2ω1 )t

+24a21 a2 (0) (0)
+ (0) (0)
(ω2 − ω1 )(ω2 − 3ω1 ) (ω2 + ω1 )(ω2 + 3ω1 )
!
2 cos ω2 t cos 3ω2 t
+ (0) (0)
+ 8a32 (0) (0)
(ω2 − ω1 )(ω2 + ω1 ) (3ω2 + ω1 )(3ω2 − ω1 )
!#
3 cos ω2 t
+ (0) (0)
(ω2 − ω1 )(ω2 + ω1 )

In a similar way, one can obtain the correction for ω2 and the corrected
solution y (3) . We finally illustrate the case where ω1 is a rational multiple of
ω2 , in particular we specialize to the case when ω1 = ω2 = ω. In this case,
the above procedure can be applied, but there would be more terms that
contribute to resonance. One obtains the following equation for x(3)

ẍ(3) + (ω (0) )2 x(3) =

(2ω (0) ω (2) a1 − 3λ(a1 + a2 )3 ) cos ωt − λ(a1 + a2 )3 cos 3ωt

5
Setting the coefficient of cos ωt to zero we get the correction to the frequency
as
3λ(a1 + a2 )3
ω (2) =
2ω (0) a1
The particular integral of the inhomogeneous linear equation is found to be

λ(a1 + a2 )3
x(3) = cos 3ωt
8(ω (0) )2

4. The given equation is

ẍ + ω02 (1 + h cos[(2ω0 + )t]) x = 0 (4.1)

Let the solution be of the form

x(t) = a0 (t) cos(ω0 + /2)t + b0 (t) sin(ω0 + /2)t

+ a1 (t) cos 3(ω0 + /2)t + b1 (t) sin 3(ω0 + /2)t

Where a0 and b0 are O(h0 ) and a1 and b1 are O(h). We plug this ansatz into
(4.1), and keep terms coming from frequencies 3(ω0 + /2) and ignore terms
of frequency 5(ω0 + /2) and get the following expression
 
1 2
−8ω0 a1 − 9ω0 a1 + ä1 + 6ḃ1 ω0 + ω0 a0 h cos 3(ω0 + /2)
2
2
 
1 2
+ −8ω0 b1 − 9ω0 b1 + b̈1 + 6ȧ1 ω0 + ω0 b0 h sin 3(ω0 + /2)
2
2

+ (−ω0  − 2 /4)a0 + 2(ω0 + /2)ḃ0

1 2 1 2
+ ω0 a0 h + ä0 + ω0 a1 h cos(ω0 + /2)t + (−ω0  − 2 /4)b0
2 2

1 2 1 2
−2(ω0 + /2)ȧ0 − ω0 b0 h + b̈0 + ω0 b1 h sin(ω0 + /2)t = 0
2 2

To compute the O(h) correction to the solution and the O(h2 ) correction to
the rate constant, we require to only keep the O(h) terms with the 3(ω0 +/2)

6
term and all terms up to O(h2 ) with the (ω0 + /2) term. Doing this gives
 
1 2
−8ω0 a1 + ω0 a0 h cos 3(ω0 + /2)t
2
2
  
1 2
+ −8ω0 b1 + ω0 b0 h sin 3(ω0 + /2)t + (−ω0  − 2 /4)a0 + 2(ω0 + /2)ḃ0
2
2

1 2 1 2
+ ω0 a0 h + ä0 + ω0 a1 h cos(ω0 + /2)t + (−ω0  − 2 /4)b0
2 2

1 2 1 2
−2(ω0 + /2)ȧ0 − ω0 b0 h + b̈0 + ω0 b1 h sin(ω0 + /2)t = 0
2 2
We seek exponential solutions for a0 (t) and b0 (t) of the form exp(νt). Solving
for a1 and b1 by setting the coefficients of cos 3(ω0 + /2)t and sin 3(ω0 + /2)t
to zero, we get a1 = ha0 /16 and b1 = hb0 /16. Plugging this back into the
O(h2 ) expression in the coefficient of the cos(ω0 + /2)t and sin(ω0 + /2)t
and setting a0 = a exp(νt) and b0 = b exp(νt), we get the following linear
equations for a and b
(−ω0  − 2 /4 + hω02 /2 + ν 2 + h2 ω02 /32)a + 2(ω0 + /2)νb = 0
(−ω0  − 2 /4 − hω02 /2 + ν 2 + h2 ω02 /32)b − 2(ω0 + /2)νa = 0
This has nontrivial solutions for a and b only if the determinant formed by
the coefficients of a and b vanishes. Thus, one obtains
 2 2 2 
h ω0 2 h2 ω04  2 2
+ ν − ω0  −
2
− + 4 ω0 + ν =0
32 4 4 2
Solving this as far as the O(h2 ) term, one obtains
ω0 h2
ν (2) = − q
2
64 1
2
hω0 − 2

which is the required O(h2 ) correction to the rate constant that governs ex-
ponential behaviour. One obtains the O(h) correction to the solution by
plugging in expressions for a1 and b1 found above.

5. We are given that the length is varied as

  r  
g
l(t) = L 1 + h cos 2 + t
L

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The time dependent frequency is found to be (up to O(h))

ω 2 (t) = ω02 (1 − h cos(2ω0 + )t)

p
where ω0 = g/L.
(a) For parametric resonance to happen, one requires  = ± 12 hω0 . This com-
putation is up to O(h). For any  outside this range, the pendulum undergoes
simple, bounded oscillations.
(b) In the presence of slight friction, the width of the region of instability
becomes narrower, as friction results in damping of the amplitude of the oscil-
lations as exp(−λt). Hence the amplification of the oscillations in parametric
resonance is as exp((ν − λ)t) where ν is the exponential growth coefficient
due to parametric resonance, with the positive ν given by the solution for the
frictionless case. The range for parametric resonance in this case becomes
s 2 s 2
1 1
− hω0 − 4λ <  <
2 hω0 − 4λ2
2 2

6. We are given that at t = 0 the system is at rest in equilibrium (x = ẋ = 0).

Using the formula 22.10 from Landau-Lifshitz, and substituting the given
forcing function, one easily obtains for the harmonic solution x(t) for t > T
the following

x(t) =
α [ω(exp(νt) cos(ω(t − T )) − cos ωt) + ν(exp(νt) sin(ω(t − T )) − sin ωt)]

Where α = f0 /(mω(ν 2 + ω 2 )).