Related papers: Henri Poincare and Relativity Theory
It will be shown that, in comparison with the pre-relativistic Galileo-invariant conceptions, special relativity tells us nothing new about the geometry of spacetime. It simply calls something else "spacetime", and this something else has…
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…
We show in a new way that the general relativity action (and Lagrangian)in recent Einstein-Palatini formulation is equivalent in four dimensions to the action (and Lagrangian) of a gauge field. This paper is a continuation of the previous…
Poincar\'e held the view that geometry is a convention and cannot be tested experimentally. This position was apparently refuted by the general theory of relativity and the successful confirmation of its predictions; unfortunately,…
The advent of general relativity settled it once and for all that a theory of spacetime is inextricably linked to the theory of gravity. From the point of view of the gauge principle of Weyl and Yang-Mills-Utiyama, it became manifest around…
Inspired by Bohr's dictum that "physical phenomena are observed relative to different experimental setups", this article investigates the notion of relativity in Bohr's sense, starting from a set of binary elements. The most general form of…
The quantum theory of ur objects postulates that all existing physical objects and their properties are constructed from fundamental objects called ur objects being described by an element of a two dimensional complex Hilbert space. This…
A simple visual representation of Minkowski spacetime appropriate for a student with a background in geometry and algebra is presented. Minkowski spacetime can be modeled with a Euclidean 4-space to yield accurate visualizations as…
We summarize the main ideas of General Relativity and Lorentzian geometry, leading to a proof of the simplest of the celebrated Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems. The reader is assumed to be familiar with Riemannian geometry and point…
This is a semipopular introduction to the Special and General Theory of Relativity, with special emphasis on the geometrical aspects of both theories and their physical implications.
In these notes, based on the lectures given at 40th Winter School on Theoretical Physics, I review some aspects of Doubly Special Relativity (DSR). In particular, I discuss relation between DSR and quantum gravity, the formal structure of…
There is no doubt that both the special and general theories of relativity capture the imagination. The anti-intuitive properties of the special theory of relativity and its deep philosophical implications, the bizzare and dazzling…
It is known that Einstein's conceptual base for his theory of relativity was the philosophy formulated by Immanuel Kant. Things appear differently to observers in different frames. However, Kant's Ding-an-Sich leads to the existence of the…
In general relativity space-time ends at singularities. The big bang is considered as the Beginning and the big crunch, the End. However these conclusions are arrived at by using general relativity in regimes which lie well beyond its…
In this two-part essay, we distinguish several senses in which general relativity has been regarded as "locally special relativistic". Here, in Part 1, we focus on senses in which a relativistic spacetime has been said to be "locally…
I have recently shown that it is possible to formulate the Relativity postulates in a way that does not lead to inconsistencies in the case of space-times whose structure is governed by observer-independent scales of both velocity and…
I review, some of the algebraic and geometric structures that underlie the theory of Special Relativity. This includes a discussion of relativity as a symmetry principle, derivations of the Lorentz group, its composition law, its Lie…
Einstein distinguished between ``principle'' and ``constructive'' theories in physics, and although he thought the latter were more explanatory than the former, he regarded his 1905 formulation of special relativity theory as a principle…
With his General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein produced a revolution in our conception of reality and of the knowledge we can obtain from it. This revolution can be viewed from philosophy as leading to one of the great paradigms in…
Recently, [3], it was shown that Special Relativity is in fact based on one single physical axiom which is that of Reciprocity. Originally, Einstein, [1], established Special Relativity on two physical axioms, namely, the Galilean…