On Penrose's Analogy between Curved Spacetime Regions and Optical Lenses
History and Philosophy of Physics
2024-06-21 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
We present a detailed analysis of Penrose's gravito-optical analogy between the focusing effects of particular families of Ricci- and Weyl-curved spacetime regions on the one hand, and anastigmatic and astigmatic optical lenses on the other. We put the analogy in its historical context, investigate its underlying assumptions, its range of validity, its proof of concept, and its application in Penrose's study of the notion of energy flux in general relativity. Finally, we examine the analogy within the framework of Norton's material theory of induction.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2310.07337,
title = {On Penrose's Analogy between Curved Spacetime Regions and Optical Lenses},
author = {Dennis Lehmkuhl and Christian Röken and Juliusz Doboszewski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.07337},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
30 pages, 2 figures, minor correction, reference removed (published version)