Related papers: Gravitation: from Newton to Einstein
In this paper we consider a thought experiment involving the effect of gravitation on an ideal scale containing a photon. If the tidal forces inherent to a gravitational field are neglected, then one is led to scenario which seems to bring…
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…
Euler's interpretation of Newton's gravity (NG) as Archimedes' thrust in a fluid ether is presented in some detail. Then a semi-heuristic mechanism for gravity, close to Euler's, is recalled and compared with the latter. None of these two…
Solving Einstein's equations precisely for strong-field gravitational systems is essential to determining the full physics content of gravitational wave detections. Without these solutions it is not possible to infer precise values for…
In these lectures I review the status of gravity from the point of view of the gauge principle and renormalization, the main tools in the toolbox of theoretical particle physics. In the first lecture I start from the old question "in what…
Starting with a field theoretic approach in Minkowski space, the gravitational energy momentum tensor is derived from the Einstein equations in a straightforward manner. This allows to present them as {\it acceleration tensor} = const.…
The objective of this second part of the work is to present heuristic derivations of the three classical tests of general relativity. These derivations are based on the Einstein equivalence principle and use Newtonian physics as a…
The gravitational force harbours a fundamental instability against collapse. In standard General Relativity without Quantum Mechanics, this implies the existence of black holes as natural, stable solutions of Einstein's equations. If one…
We suggest a lecture on Newtonian gravity, discussing how the use of the scientific method allows to rule out some of the models for the shape of Earth leaving a spherical Earth as the only possibility, in agreement with empirical…
The 'Imitation Game' is a Turing Test played with a human participant instead of a computer. Here the author, a sociologist, who has been immersed in the field of gravitational wave physics since 1972, tried to pass an Imitation Game as a…
Was Einstein wrong? This paper provides a detailed technical review of Einstein's special and general relativity from an astrophysical perspective, including the historical development of the theories, experimental tests, modern…
Based on the model of a "soft" cellular space and deterministic quantum mechanics developed previously, the scattering of a free moving particle by structural units of the space -- superparticles -- is studied herein. The process of energy…
The accelerating expansion of the Universe poses a major challenge to our understanding of fundamental physics. One promising avenue is to modify general relativity and obtain a new description of the gravitational force. Because…
In this paper we review the derivation of light bending obtained before the discovery of General Relativity (GR). It is intended for students learning GR or specialist that will find new lights and connexions on these historic derivations.…
It was conjectured thirty years ago that gravity could arise from the entropic re-arrangement of information. In this paper, we offer a set of microscopic quantum models which realize this idea in detail. In particular, we suggest a simple…
The Einstein postulates assert an invariance of the propagation speed of light in vacuum for any observer, and which amounts to a presumed absence of any preferred frame. The postulates appear to be directly linked to relativistic effects…
This is a review with some comments on the A. Einstein`s 1911 paper, which he published as one of his many attempts of the general theory of relativity. The main point of the idea is to propose a new approach about light and its motion as…
In this article, we discuss the idea of gravitational lensing, from a systematic, historical and didactic point of view. We show how the basic lensing equation together with the concepts of geometrical optics opens a space of implications…
Lecture notes on selected topics in the theory of gravitation.
In this lecture I build up the motivation for relativity and gravitation based on general principles and common sense considerations which should fall in the sphere of appreciation of a general reader. There is a novel way of looking at…