An electrically neutral pion (º) can be created in a collision between two protons. (The protons still exist after the interaction.) Thus the reaction is p+p-->p+p+⁰ The proton rest energy is 938 MeV, and the pion rest energy is 140 MeV. Imagine that you are designing an accelerator, and you want to make sure that it has sufficient energy to produce a nº. (a) If the accelerator shoots a beam of protons onto a stationary proton target, what is the minimum (threshold) kinetic energy per proton? (b) If the accelerator has two colliding beams of protons (both with the same energy), then what is the minimum (threshold) kinetic energy per proton?

An electrically neutral pion (º) can be created in a collision between two protons. (The protons still exist after the interaction.) Thus the reaction is p+p-->p+p+⁰ The proton rest energy is 938 MeV, and the pion rest energy is 140 MeV. Imagine that you are designing an accelerator, and you want to make sure that it has sufficient energy to produce a nº. (a) If the accelerator shoots a beam of protons onto a stationary proton target, what is the minimum (threshold) kinetic energy per proton? (b) If the accelerator has two colliding beams of protons (both with the same energy), then what is the minimum (threshold) kinetic energy per proton?