Related papers: Uniqueness of Simultaneity
Besides two fundamental postulates, (i) the principle of relativity and (ii) the constancy of the one-way speed of light in all inertial frames of reference, the special theory of relativity uses the assumption about the Euclidean structure…
This article reports on an investigation of student understanding of the concept of time in special relativity. A series of research tasks are discussed that illustrate, step-by-step, how student reasoning of fundamental concepts of…
Clock synchronisation is conventional when inertial systems are involved. This statement is no longer true in accelerated systems. A demonstration is given in the case of a rotating platform. We conclude that theories based on the…
Symmetries in quantum mechanics are realized by the projective representations of the Lie group as physical states are defined only up to a phase. A cornerstone theorem shows that these representations are equivalent to the unitary…
We study the existence of automatic presentations for various algebraic structures. An automatic presentation of a structure is a description of the universe of the structure by a regular set of words, and the interpretation of the…
We consider models with a noncompact symmetry in the framework of $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry. Contrary to the conventional approach, the noncompact symmetry is realized linearly on all fields without constraints. The models are…
The infinite cosmological "constant" limit of the de Sitter solutions to Einstein's equation is studied. The corresponding spacetime is a singular, four-dimensional cone-space, transitive under proper conformal transformations, which…
The Lagrange identity expresses the second derivative of the moment of inertia of a system of material points through kinetic energy and homogeneous potential energy, from which follows the Jacobi well-known result on the instability of a…
Let U be a real form of a complex semisimple Lie group, and tau, sigma, a pair of commuting involutions on U. This data corresponds to a reflective submanifold of a symmetric space, U/K. We define an associated integrable system, and…
We study Einstein metrics on complex projective spaces that are invariant under cohomogeneity one actions of compact connected Lie groups, under the assumption that the singular orbits are totally geodesic. These actions were classified by…
The Xi-transform is a new spinor transform arising naturally in Einstein's general relativity. Here the example of conformally flat space-time is discussed in detail. In particular it is shown that for this case, the transform coincides…
We argue that in a nonlinear gravity theory, which according to well-known results is dynamically equivalent to a self-gravitating scalar field in General Relativity, the true physical variables are exactly those which describe the…
We classify noncompact homogeneous spaces which are Einstein and asymptotically harmonic. This completes the classification of Riemannian harmonic spaces in the homogeneous case: Any simply connected homogeneous harmonic space is flat, or…
We analize the relational quantum evolution of generally covariant systems in terms of Rovelli's evolving constants of motion and the generalized Heisenberg picture. In order to have a well defined evolution, and a consistent quantum…
We present an infinite sequence of finite graphs with trivial automorphism group and non-trivial quantum automorphism group. These are the first known examples of graphs with this property. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, these are…
A new method for constructing exact inhomogeneous universes is presented, that allows variation in 3 dimensions. The resulting spacetime may be statistically uniform on average, or have random, non-repeating variation. The construction…
We present an explicit exact solution of Einstein's equations for an inhomogeneous dust universe with cylindrical symmetry. The spacetime is extremely simple but nonetheless it has new surprising features. The universe is ``closed'' in the…
We study non-Einstein Bach-flat gravitational instanton solutions that can be regarded as the generalization of the Taub-NUT/Bolt and Eguchi-Hanson solutions of Einstein gravity to conformal gravity. These solutions include non-Einstein…
The conformal symmetry on the instanton moduli space is discussed using the ADHM construction, where a viewpoint of "homogeneous coordinates" for both the spacetime and the moduli space turns out to be useful. It is shown that the conformal…
On $4$-symmetric symplectic spaces, invariant almost complex structures -- up to sign -- arise in pairs. We exhibit some $4$-symmetric symplectic spaces, with a pair of "natural" compatible (usually not positive) invariant almost complex…