Introductory notes on phase space

The first aim of this course is to arrive at a relativistic generalization of Fermi's Golden Rule in such a way as to make clear what is kinematics (or 'phase space')-so that the dynamics can be 'factorized' off as well as is possible. Then comes an introduction to several kinematical plots which are useful for looking at data, followed by a discussion of the limitations of such plots (the occurrence of 'kinematical reflections'). In conclusion, an analysis which is reasonably free of reflections is mentioned briefly. (8 refs) .