Related papers: Special Relativity: Einstein's Spherical Waves ver…
At the end of the 19th century light was regarded as an electromagnetic wave propagating in a material medium called ether. The speed c appearing in Maxwell's wave equations was the speed of light with respect to the ether. Therefore,…
It is rarely emphasized in modern physics textbooks that our definitions of space and time have to reflect their complete interdependence. Our intuitive methods of always picturing one-dimensional space as a sum of unit-length rods and of…
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…
Einstein's Equivalence Principle is used with the electromagnetic spectrum to translate meters and seconds into radians and seconds. Based on a unique geometric relationship, a new transformation of velocities and a changed Lorentz…
The Lorentz transformation is used to analyse space and time coordinates corresponding to two spatially-separated clocks in the same inertial frame. The time dilatation effect is confirmed, but not `relativity of simultaneity' or…
As shown by the development of Special Relativity the simultaneity concept should be related to that of reference frame. Poincare' proposed to define the simultaneity of two events by means of light signals following what is nowadays known…
Polarization, spin, and helicity are important properties of electromagnetic waves. It is commonly believed that helicity is invariant under the Lorentz transformations. This is indeed so for plane waves and their localized superpositions.…
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was proposed a little over a hundred years back. It remained a bedrock of twentieth century physics right up to Quantum Field Theory. However, the failure over several decades to provide a unified…
A detailed re-examination of the seminal paper on special relativity, taking into account recent work on the physical interpretation of the space-time Lorentz transformation as well as the modern understanding of classical elecromagnetism…
It is noted that the Poincar\'e sphere for polarization optics contains the symmetries of the Lorentz group. The sphere is thus capable of describing the internal space-time symmetries dictated by Wigner's little groups. For massive…
A classical circularly polarized electromagnetic wave carries angular momentum, and represents the classical limit of a photon, which carries quantized spin. It is shown that a very similar picture of a circularly polarized coherent wave…
How does the appearance of a strongly lensed system change if a gravitational wave is produced by the lens? In this work we address this question by considering a supermassive black hole binary at the center of the lens emitting…
We here deduce Lorentz transformation (LT) as a member of a class of time-dependent coordinate transformations, complementary to those already known as spatial translations and rotations. This exercise validates the principle of physical…
The conventional discussion of apparent distortions of space and time in Special Relativity (the Lorentz-Fitzgerald Contraction and Time Dilatation) is extended by considering observations of : (i) moving objects of limited lifetime in…
If Einstein's photon is $E = cp = \hbar\omega$, Wigner's photon is its helicity which is a Lorentz-invariant concept coming from the E(2)-like little group for massless particles. In addition, the E(2)-like little group has two…
We show that starting with the fact that special relativity theory is concerned with a distortion of the observed length of a moving rod, without mentioning if it is a "contraction" or "dilation", we can derive the Lorentz transformations…
To consider a medium carrying light and electromagnetic waves is impossible, when this medium shall have properties according to the principle of constant speed of light, that is, isotropy of speed of light in every system of reference.…
We highlight the correspondence between one-dimensional Lorentz transformations, which relate events observed from two distinct inertial reference frames, and ray transfer transformations in Gaussian optics. Specifically, we identify…
The diagram showing off-center nested spheres which is traditionally used to illustrate the Doppler effect, is misleading and its trigonometric analysis leads to errors concerning light, because electromagnetic Doppler and aberration…
1) A wave equation is derived from the kinetic equations governing media with rotational as well as translational degrees of freedom. In this wave the fluctuating quantity is a vector, the bulk spin. The transmission is similar to…