English

Non-inertial frames that can mimic gravitational fields

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2024-12-16 v2

Abstract

One version of the principle of equivalence, as originally formulated by Einstein, states that ``gravity" can be mimicked locally by going to an ``accelerated frame of reference". As highlighted by Synge, the physical content of this principle remains obscure in so far as it does not refer to the Riemann tensor RabcdR_{abcd}, which encodes the true effects of gravity. We here give the acceleration profile of a BornBorn rigid, Rindleresqueesque, frame that can mimic a gravitational field corresponding to a given RabcdR_{abcd}. The generalised deviation equation that yields this result also has Centrifugal and Coriolis terms appearing in a purely relational context, yielding a similar connection between angular velocity of rotating, rigid inertial frames and the Riemann tensor. We comment briefly on implications for Mach principle.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2403.16229,
  title  = {Non-inertial frames that can mimic gravitational fields},
  author = {Dawood Kothawala},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.16229},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

v1: 7 pages, 2 figures; v2: version accepted in PRD Letters

R2 v1 2026-06-28T15:31:48.677Z