Related papers: Minkowski and Special Relativity: Does His Spaceti…
A century after its formulation by Einstein, it is time to incorporate special relativity early in the physics curriculum. The approach advocated here employs a simple algebraic extension of vector formalism that generates Minkowski…
A thought experiment first proposed by Sartori is analysed using the parallel velocity addition formula of special relativity. The distances and proper-time intervals between some similarly defined spatial coincidence events are found to be…
The notions of "motion" and "conserved quantities", if applied to extended objects, are already quite non-trivial in Special Relativity. This contribution is meant to remind us on all the relevant mathematical structures and constructions…
The book presents ideas by H. Poincare and H. Minkowski according to those the essence and the main content of the relativity theory are the following: the space and time form a unique four-dimensional continuum supplied by the…
The relation between quantum theory and special relativity is peculiar. On the one hand it is close and essential. Steven Weinberg [1], for example, takes the position that the standard model is an inevitable consequence of the marriage of…
When addressing the notion of proper time in the theory of relativity, it is usually taken for granted that the time read by an accelerated clock is given by the Minkowski proper time. However, there are authors like Harvey Brown that…
The issue of inertia as opposition to acceleration of a massive point particle in Minkowski space-time is investigated in the context of a Hamiltonian constraint system. It is shown that the inertia as a locally-originating force in…
In the presence of a cosmological constant, ordinary Poincare' special relativity is no longer valid and must be replaced by a de Sitter special relativity, in which Minkowski space is replaced by a de Sitter spacetime. In consequence, the…
In special relativity theory the physical quantities are generally expressed as function of the velocity. In the particular case of an extended object, the factor 1/gamma of Lorentz contraction of its length in the direction of motion is…
This survey paper is divided into two parts. In the first (section 2), I give a brief account of the structure of classical relativity theory. In the second (section 3), I discuss three special topics: (i) the status of the relative…
The theory of relativity showed that several Newtonian ideas about spacetime are imperfect. We present here some relativistic concepts related to these ideas: simultaneity of events and synchronization of clocks (both along a line in the…
It is argued that the `problem of time' in quantum gravity necessitates a refinement of the local inertial structure of the world, demanding a replacement of the usual Minkowski line element by a 4+2n dimensional pseudo-Euclidean line…
We adapt the axioms of the quantum mechanics to the quantum Minkowski space-time coordinates and their transformations under the quantum Lorentz group to show how we can formulate the noncommutative special relativity and its quantum…
We argue that the construction of spacetime is personal, specific to each observer, and requires combining aspects of both discovery and creation. What is usually referred to as the block universe then emerges by noting that part of the…
Classical mechanics, relativity, electrodynamics and quantum mechanics are often depicted as separate realms of physics, each with its own formalism and notion. This remains unsatisfactory with respect to the unity of nature and to the…
Einstein's special theory of relativity starts with assumptions about how observations conducted in relatively moving inertial frames must compare. From these assumptions, conclusions can be drawn regarding the laws of physics in any one…
The special theory of relativity teaches us that, although distinct inertial frames perceive the same dynamical laws, space and time intervals differ in value. We revisit the problem of time contraction using the paradigmatic model of a…
A challenge in teaching about special relativity is that a number of the theory's effects are at odds with the intuition of classical physics, as well as student's everyday experience. The relativity of simultaneity, time dilation and…
This paper, which is meant to be a tribute to Minkowski's geometrical insight, rests on the idea that the basic observed symmetries of spacetime homogeneity and of isotropy of space, which are displayed by the spacetime manifold in the…
A calculus based on pointer-mark coincidences is proposed to define, in a mathematically rigorous way, measurements of space and time intervals. The connection between such measurements in different inertial frames according to the Galilean…