PH-105 Assignment Sheet - 2 (Quantum Mechanics)

Umang Mathur

45. A charged pi-meson has a rest energy of 140 MeV and a lifetime of 26 ns, while a rho-
meson has a rest energy of 765 MeV and a lifetime of 4.4 × 10−24 s. In each case find the
absolute and fractional uncertainty in energy. Use the following uncertainty principle for
this problem ∆E∆t ≥ ~/2.

Solution :
By the use of uncertainty principle, we approximate ∆E as follows:

~/2
∆E ≈
∆t
where ∆t is the lifetime of the particle.

(a) For the pi-meson

5.273 × 10−35
Absolute uncertainty in energy = ∆E ≈ = 2.028 × 10−27J = 1.268 × 10−14M eV
2.6 × 10−8

∆E 1.268 × 10−14 M eV
Fractional uncertainty in energy = = = 9.057 × 10−17
E 140M eV
(b) For the rho-meson

5.273 × 10−35
Absolute uncertainty in energy = ∆E ≈ = 1.198 × 10−11 J = 74.89M eV
4.4 × 10−24

∆E 74.89M eV
Fractional uncertainty in energy = = = 0.098
E 765M eV