SPECIAL RELATIVITY from Einstein to Strings The traditional undergraduate physics treatment of special relativity is too cursory to warrant a textbook . The graduate treatment of special relativity is deeper , but often fragmented ...
Author: Patricia M. Schwarz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139449508
Category: Science
Page: 400
View: 694
This book provides a thorough introduction to Einstein's special theory of relativity, suitable for anyone with a minimum of one year's university physics with calculus. It is divided into fundamental and advanced topics. The first section starts by recalling the Pythagorean rule and its relation to the geometry of space, then covers every aspect of special relativity, including the history. The second section covers the impact of relativity in quantum theory, with an introduction to relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. It also goes over the group theory of the Lorentz group, a simple introduction to supersymmetry, and ends with cutting-edge topics such as general relativity, the standard model of elementary particles and its extensions, superstring theory, and a survey of important unsolved problems. Each chapter comes with a set of exercises. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM illustrating, through interactive animation, classic problems in relativity involving motion.
——'The geometric phase', Nature, 360: 307–13 (1992). —— and Harvey R. Brown. 'On the reality of space-time geometry and the wavefunction', Foundations of Physics, 25:349–60 (1995). James L. Anderson. 'Relativity pirnciples and the role ...
Author: Harvey R. Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780199275830
Category: Philosophy
Page: 240
View: 915
Physical Relativity explores the nature of the distinction at the heart of Einstein's 1905 formulation of his special theory of relativity: that between kinematics and dynamics. Einstein himself became increasingly uncomfortable with this distinction, and with the limitations of what he called the 'principle theory' approach inspired by the logic of thermodynamics. A handful of physicists and philosophers have over the last century likewise expressed doubts about Einstein'streatment of the relativistic behaviour of rigid bodies and clocks in motion in the kinematical part of his great paper, and suggested that the dynamical understanding of length contraction and time dilation intimated by the immediate precursors of Einstein is more fundamental. Harvey Brown both examines andextends these arguments (which support a more 'constructive' approach to relativistic effects in Einstein's terminology), after giving a careful analysis of key features of the pre-history of relativity theory. He argues furthermore that the geometrization of the theory by Minkowski in 1908 brought illumination, but not a causal explanation of relativistic effects. Finally, Brown tries to show that the dynamical interpretation of special relativity defended in the book is consistent with therole this theory must play as a limiting case of Einstein's 1915 theory of gravity: the general theory of relativity.Appearing in the centennial year of Einstein's celebrated paper on special relativity, Physical Relativity is an unusual, critical examination of the way Einstein formulated his theory. It also examines in detail certain specific historical and conceptual issues that have long given rise to debate in both special and general relativity theory, such as the conventionality of simultaneity, the principle of general covariance, and the consistency or otherwise of the special theory withquantum mechanics. Harvey Brown' s new interpretation of relativity theory will interest anyone working on these central topics in modern physics.
Newtonian Physics is the first theory of Physics which was formulated scientifically and became the milestone for the Theory of Special (and General) Relativity. All relativistic ideas are hidden in the Newtonian structure; therefore it ...
Author: Michael Tsamparlis
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9783030273477
Category: Science
Page: 815
View: 133
This textbook develops Special Relativity in a systematic way and offers the unique feature of having more than 200 problems with detailed solutions to empower students to gain a real understanding of this core subject in physics. This new edition has been thoroughly updated and has new sections on relativistic fluids, relativistic kinematics and on four-acceleration. The problems and solution section has been significantly expanded and short history sections have been included throughout the book. The approach is structural in the sense that it develops Special Relativity in Minkowski space following the parallel steps as the development of Newtonian Physics in Euclidian space. A second characteristic of the book is that it discusses the mathematics of the theory independently of the physical principles, so that the reader will appreciate their role in the development of the physical theory. The book is intended to be used both as a textbook for an advanced undergraduate teaching course in Special Relativity but also as a reference book for the future. In that respect it is linked to an online repository with more than 200 problems, carefully classified according to subject area and solved in detail, providing an independent problem book on Special Relativity.
CE3 I Q THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST TRUTH vying with each other to deny any commonality between relativity physics and any version of "relativism" (the antiscientific and subversive animus of which is widely taken for granted).
Author: Christopher Herbert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226327329
Category: History
Page: 322
View: 904
One of the articles of faith of twentieth-century intellectual history is that the theory of relativity in physics sprang in its essentials from the unaided genius of Albert Einstein; another is that scientific relativity is unconnected to ethical, cultural, or epistemological relativisms. Victorian Relativity challenges these assumptions, unearthing a forgotten tradition of avant-garde speculation that took as its guiding principle "the negation of the absolute" and set itself under the militant banner of "relativity." Christopher Herbert shows that the idea of relativity produced revolutionary changes in one field after another in the nineteenth century. Surveying a long line of thinkers including Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, W. K. Clifford, W. S. Jevons, Karl Pearson, James Frazer, and Einstein himself, Victorian Relativity argues that the early relativity movement was bound closely to motives of political and cultural reform and, in particular, to radical critiques of the ideology of authoritarianism. Recuperating relativity from those who treat it as synonymous with nihilism, Herbert portrays it as the basis of some of our crucial intellectual and ethical traditions.
Chapter 1 Introduction This is not a typical book on relativity. It puts the emphasis on conceptual analyses that lie beyond the scope of most physics books on this subject. Such conceptual analyses almost always refer to the existence ...
Author: Vesselin Petkov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783642019623
Category: Science
Page: 316
View: 849
Puts the emphasis on conceptual questions: Why is there no such thing as absolute motion? What is the physical meaning of relativity of simultaneity? But, the most important question that is addressed in this book is "what is the nature of spacetime?" or, equivalently, "what is the dimensionality of the world at the macroscopic level?" Develops answers to these questions via a thorough analysis of relativistic effects and explicitly asking whether the objects involved in those effects are three-dimensional or four-dimensional. Discusses the implication of the result (this analysis clearly shows that if the world and the physical objects were three-dimensional, none of the kinematic relativistic effects and the experimental evidence supporting them would be possible) for physics, philosophy, and our entire world view are discussed.
The inception of relativity as a dynamical theory of spacetime was a major breakthrough of curiosity driven basic research, and it had important ramifications both for particle physics and for our understanding of the structure and ...
Author: Rainer Dick
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 9781643273808
Category: Science
Page: 151
View: 547
This book provides a concise introduction to both the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity. The format is chosen to provide the basis for a single semester course which can take the students all the way from the foundations of special relativity to the core results of general relativity: the Einstein equation and the equations of motion for particles and light in curved spacetime. To facilitate access to the topics of special and general relativity for science and engineering students without prior training in relativity or geometry, the relevant geometric notions are also introduced and developed from the ground up. Students in physics, mathematics or engineering with an interest to learn Einstein's theories of relativity should be able to use this book already in the second semester of their third year. The book could also be used as the basis of a graduate level introduction to relativity for students who did not learn relativity as part of their undergraduate training.
Secondly, one of the livelier issues in recent philosophy of science is the problem of intertheory relations. In order to deal with this issue in terms of the relationship between Newtonian physics and relativity physics it is obviously ...
Author: Roger B. Angel
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 9781483150031
Category: Science
Page: 270
View: 653
Relativity: The Theory and its Philosophy provides a completely self-contained treatment of the philosophical foundations of the theory of relativity. It also surveys the most essential mathematical techniques and concepts that are indispensable to an understanding of the foundations of both the special and general theories of relativity. In short, the book includes a crash course in applied mathematics, ranging from elementary trigonometry to the classical tensor calculus. Comprised of 11 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to fundamental mathematical concepts such as sets, relations, and functions; N-tuples, vectors, and matrices; and vector algebra and calculus. The discussion then turns to the concept of relativity and elementary foundations of Newtonian mechanics, as well as the principle of special relativity and its interpretation by means of empiricism and rationalism. Subsequent chapters focus on the status of the doctrine of conventionalism in the theory of special relativity; the commensurability of classical and relativistic mechanics; mathematical foundations of special relativistic physics; and the classical or Newtonian theory of gravitation. The principle of general covariance and its relation to the principle of general relativity are also examined. The final chapter addresses the fundamental question as to the actual information concerning the structure of spacetime that is conveyed to us through the theory of general relativity. This monograph will be of interest to students, teachers, practitioners, and researchers in physics, mathematics, and philosophy.
Map & 8tka) is needed to show that the earth can in most discussions be analyzed by Newtonian physics (see Section 0.1.10). In our units, 1 second ~ 3 x 10" m ~ 1.5 x 10* kg. 0.1.5 Newtonian physics No relativistic model can be deduced ...
Author: R.K. Sachs
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781461299035
Category: Mathematics
Page: 292
View: 415
This is a book about physics, written for mathematicians. The readers we have in mind can be roughly described as those who: I. are mathematics graduate students with some knowledge of global differential geometry 2. have had the equivalent of freshman physics, and find popular accounts of astrophysics and cosmology interesting 3. appreciate mathematical elarity, but are willing to accept physical motiva tions for the mathematics in place of mathematical ones 4. are willing to spend time and effort mastering certain technical details, such as those in Section 1. 1. Each book disappoints so me readers. This one will disappoint: 1. physicists who want to use this book as a first course on differential geometry 2. mathematicians who think Lorentzian manifolds are wholly similar to Riemannian ones, or that, given a sufficiently good mathematical back ground, the essentials of a subject !ike cosmology can be learned without so me hard work on boring detaiis 3. those who believe vague philosophical arguments have more than historical and heuristic significance, that general relativity should somehow be "proved," or that axiomatization of this subject is useful 4. those who want an encyclopedic treatment (the books by Hawking-Ellis [1], Penrose [1], Weinberg [1], and Misner-Thorne-Wheeler [I] go further into the subject than we do; see also the survey article, Sachs-Wu [1]). 5. mathematicians who want to learn quantum physics or unified fieId theory (unfortunateIy, quantum physics texts all seem either to be for physicists, or merely concerned with formaI mathematics).
These results are useful for answering the puzzles about changes of some universal physics constants in spacetime during the ... Special Relativity is one of the foundations of physics and has impact on a number branches of physics.
Author: Mu-Lin Yan
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789814618724
Category: Science
Page: 280
View: 391
Einstein's Special Relativity (E-SR) is the cornerstone of physics. De Sitter invariant SR (dS/AdS-SR) is a natural extension of E-SR, hence it relates to the foundation of physics. This book provides a description to dS/AdS-SR in terms of Lagrangian-Hamiltonian formulation associated with spacetime metric of inertial reference frames. One of the outstanding features of the book is as follows: All discussions on SR are in the inertial reference frames. This is a requirement due to the first principle of SR theory. The descriptions on dS/AdS-SR in this book satisfy this principle. For the curved spacetime in dS/AdS-SR theory, it is highly non-trivial. Contents:General IntroductionOverview of Einstein's Special Relativity (E-SR)De Sitter Invariant Special RelativityDe Sitter Invariant General RelativityDynamics of Expansion of the Universe in General RelativityRelativistic Quantum Mechanics for de Sitter Invariant Special RelativityDistant Hydrogen Atom in CosmologyTemporal and Spatial Variation of the Fine Structure ConstantDe Sitter Invariance of Generally Covariant Dirac Equation Readership: Students and professionals who are interested in de Sitter and anti-de Sitter invariant Special Relativity. Key Features:This is the first book to describe dS/AdS-SR systematically and comprehensivelyThe crucial contributions to dS/AdS-SR due to Lu–Zou–Guo's work (1970's) are interpreted in detail in this book. The conceptions of dS/AdS-SR Mechanics, dS/AdS-SR Quantum Mechanics, dS/AdS-SR General Relativity, and effects of dS/AdS-SR Cosmology are introduced in the book. In the descriptions, many techniques are involvedThe author, Professor Mu-Lin Yan, is an expert in SR, GR, Black Hole Physics, and Particle Physics. He is one of the discoverers of Nieh–Yan topological identity (1982), High genus solution of Yang–Baxter equation of chiral Potts model (1987), and some unusual hadron's states (2005). He also has contributions to the calculations of entropies of black holes, and to the studies of non-perturbative QCDKeywords:De Sitter Invariant Special Relativity;Special Relativity;De Sitter Group
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 113: 34–42. Slater, J.C. 1951. The electron theory of solids. American Journal of Physics 19: 368–374. Smeenk, C. 2014. Einstein's role in the creation of relativistic cosmology.
Author: Alexander S. Blum
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9783030507541
Category: Mathematics
Page: 406
View: 906
This contributed volume explores the renaissance of general relativity after World War II, when it transformed from a marginal theory into a cornerstone of modern physics. Chapters explore key historical processes related to the theory of general relativity, in addition to presenting a thorough treatment of the relevant science behind these episodes. A broad historiographical framework is introduced first, thus providing the broad context in which the given computational approaches and case studies occurred. Written by an international and interdisciplinary group of expert authors, these chapters will bring readers to a more complete understanding of Einstein’s theory. Specific topics include: Social and citation networks The Fock-Infeld dispute Wheeler’s turn to gravitation theory The position of general relativity in theories of fundamental interactions The pursuit of a quantum theory of gravity The emergence of dark matter in relation to cosmological models Institutional frameworks for gravitational wave search in Europe The Renaissance of General Relativity in Context is ideal for historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science. Students and researchers in physics will also be interested in the topics explored.
Reviews of Modern Physics 21 , 447–450 . Gorelik , Gennadi E. and Frenkel ... Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties . ... On the Foundations of General Relativity Theory and the Cosmological Problem .
Author: A.J. Kox
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 081764380X
Category: Mathematics
Page: 408
View: 337
Outgrowth of 6th Int'l Conference on the History of General Relativity, held in Amsterdam on June 26-29, 2002 Contributions from notable experts offer both new and historical insights on gravitation, general relativity, cosmology, unified field theory, and the history of science Topics run gamet from detailed mathematical discussions to more personal recollections of relativity as seen through the eyes of the public and renowned relativists
A.S. Eddington, The Mathematical Theory of Relativity (Chelsea, New York, 1975) V. Fock, The Theory of Space Time and ... Texts and Monographs in Physics (Springer, Berlin, 1984) F. de Felice, C. Clarke, Relativity on Curved Manifolds ...
Author: Norbert Straumann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9789400754102
Category: Science
Page: 736
View: 944
This book provides a completely revised and expanded version of the previous classic edition ‘General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics’. In Part I the foundations of general relativity are thoroughly developed, while Part II is devoted to tests of general relativity and many of its applications. Binary pulsars – our best laboratories for general relativity – are studied in considerable detail. An introduction to gravitational lensing theory is included as well, so as to make the current literature on the subject accessible to readers. Considerable attention is devoted to the study of compact objects, especially to black holes. This includes a detailed derivation of the Kerr solution, Israel’s proof of his uniqueness theorem, and a derivation of the basic laws of black hole physics. Part II ends with Witten’s proof of the positive energy theorem, which is presented in detail, together with the required tools on spin structures and spinor analysis. In Part III, all of the differential geometric tools required are developed in detail. A great deal of effort went into refining and improving the text for the new edition. New material has been added, including a chapter on cosmology. The book addresses undergraduate and graduate students in physics, astrophysics and mathematics. It utilizes a very well structured approach, which should help it continue to be a standard work for a modern treatment of gravitational physics. The clear presentation of differential geometry also makes it useful for work on string theory and other fields of physics, classical as well as quantum.
Although it didn't appear to give SR any new physics, it demonstrated that special relativity's description could be expressed geometrically, and could be shown in a mathematically-provable way to be self-consistent and complete within ...
Author: Eric Baird
Publisher: Chocolate Tree Books
ISBN: 9780955706806
Category: Science
Page: 378
View: 769
Relativity theory has become one of the icons of Twentieth Century science. It's reckoned to be a difficult subject, taught as a layered series of increasingly difficult mathematics and increasingly abstract concepts. We're told that relativity theory is supposed to be this complicated and counter-intuitive. But how much of this historical complexity is really necessary? Can we bypass the interpretations and paradoxes and pseudoparadoxes of Einstein's special theory and jump directly to a deeper and more intuitive description of reality? What if curvature is a fundamental part of physics, and a final theory of relativity shouldn't reduce to Einstein's "flat" 1905 theory //on principle//? "Relativity..." takes us on a whistlestop tour of Twentieth Century physics - from black holes, quantum mechanics, wormholes and the Big Bang to the workings of the human mind, and asks: what would physics look like without special relativity? 394 printed pages, 234156 mm, ~200 figures and illustrations, includes bibliography and index www.relativitybook.com
G. F. R. Ellis and D. W. Sciama : L. O'Raifeartaigh ( ed ) , in General Relativity , Oxford 1972 , p . 35 . 50. A. Trautman : in Lectures on General Relativity , Brandeis Summer Institute in Theoretical Physics , 1964 . 51.
Author: W. Israel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9027703698
Category: Science
Page: 354
View: 501
The 1972 Banff lectures attempted a systematic exposition of the ideas underlying recent developments in general relativity and its astronomical applications at a level accessible and useful to graduate students having some previous acquaintance with the subject. To our regret, it was not possible to include any printed record of Peebles' beautiful lectures on observational cosmology or of the many stimulating seminars on special topics contributed by the participants. What remains is nevertheless a reason ably self-contained and compact introduction to Einstein's theory in its modern in carnation, and we hope it will be found useful by the many physicists, astronomers, and mathematicians who wish to update and deepen their understanding of the theory. On behalf of the organizing committee, I should like to express appreciation to a number of people whose help was crucial to the success of the enterprise: to Jan van Kranendonk, who initiated the idea of a Banff summer school on general relativity; to him and to David Rowe and Don Betts for inspiration and moral support; to our indefatigable secretaries Olwyn Buckland and Leslie Hughes; and to Garry Nash, Richard Sigal, Tim Spanos, and Gordon Wilson who helped in a variety of ways to keep the wheels running. How much we owe to the splendid cooperative effort of the lecturers will be clear to any reader of the following pages.
Appendix Sixth Canadian Conference on General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics University of New Brunswick Fredericton , N. B. ... Raghunath , Department of Physics , Arizona State University , Tempe , Arizona USA 85287-1504 ...
Author: Stephen Paul Braham
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082188588X
Category: Science
Page: 400
View: 170
This volume is the refereed proceedings of the Sixth Canadian Conference on General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics held in May 1995 at the University of New Brunswick. The book includes invited talks and contributed talks and posters including state-of-the art reviews of many of the most recent important developments in gravitational physics. This book would serve as a good supplement to standard texts on the topic. Features: * Review articles in key areas: black holes, numerical relativity, etc. * Contributions covering most of gravitational physics * Useful articles for students who wish to begin exploring the issues discusses * Invited talks given by researchers known for their ability to communicate their expertise
L.B. Okun, Soviet Physics-Uspekhi 32 (July 1989) p. 629-638. 2. L.B. Okun, Physics Today, June 1989, p. 31-36; http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-42/iss-6/vol42noćp31–36.pdf, L.B. Okun, Physics Today, May 1990, p. 147. 3.
Author: Lev Borisovich Okun
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789812814111
Category: Science
Page: 323
View: 128
Energy and Mass in Relativity Theory presents about 30 pedagogical papers published by the author over the last 20 years. They deal with concepts central to relativity theory: energy E, rest energy E0, momentum p, mass m, velocity v of particles of matter, including massless photons for which v = c. Other related subjects are also discussed. According to Einstein's equation E0 = mc2, a massive particle at rest contains rest energy which is partly liberated in the nuclear reactions in the stars and the Sun, as well as in nuclear reactors and bombs on the Earth. The mass entering Einstein's equation does not depend on velocity of a body. This concept of mass is used in the physics of elementary particles and is gradually prevailing in the modern physics textbooks. This is the first book in which Einstein's equation is explicitly compared with its popular though not correct counterpart E = mc2, according to which mass increases with velocity. The book will be of interest to researchers in theoretical, atomic and nuclear physics, to historians of science as well as to students and teachers interested in relativity theory.
(Texts and monographs in physics) Revised translation of Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie und relativistische Astrophysik. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. General relativity (Physics)2. Astrophysics. I. Title. II.
Author: Norbert Straumann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783642844393
Category: Science
Page: 459
View: 283
In 1979 I gave graduate courses at the University of Zurich and lectured in the 'Troisieme Cycle de la Suisse Romande' (a consortium offour uni versities in the french-speaking part of Switzerland), and these lectures were the basis of the 'Springer Lecture Notes in Physics', Volume 150, published in 1981. This text appeared in German, because there have been few modern expositions of the general theory of relativity in the mother tongue of its only begetter. Soon after the book appeared, W. Thirring asked me to prepare an English edition for the 'Texts and Mono graphs in Physics'. Fortunately E. Borie agreed to translate the original German text into English. An excellent collaboration allowed me to re vise and add to the contents of the book. I have updated and improved the original text and have added a number of new sections, mostly on astrophysical topics. In particular, in collaboration with M. Camenzind I have included a chapter on spherical and disk accretion onto compact objects. This book divides into three parts. Part I develops the mathematical tools used in the general theory of relativity. Since I wanted to keep this part short, but reasonably self-contained, I have adopted the dry style of most modern mathematical texts. Readers who have never before been confronted with differential geometry will find the exposition too ab stract and will miss motivations of the basic concepts and constructions.
Contributions of K. Gödel to relativity and cosmology. In P. Hayek, editor, Gödel '96: Logical Foundations of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics—Kurt Gödel's Legacy (Springer Lecture Notes in Logic 6). Springer Verlag, 1996.
Author: David B. Malament
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226502458
Category: Mathematics
Page: 363
View: 132
In Topics in the Foundations of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravitation Theory, David B. Malament presents the basic logical-mathematical structure of general relativity and considers a number of special topics concerning the foundations of general relativity and its relation to Newtonian gravitation theory. These special topics include the geometrized formulation of Newtonian theory (also known as Newton-Cartan theory), the concept of rotation in general relativity, and Gödel spacetime. One of the highlights of the book is a no-go theorem that can be understood to show that there is no criterion of orbital rotation in general relativity that fully answers to our classical intuitions. Topics is intended for both students and researchers in mathematical physics and philosophy of science.
This book can be regarded as the first part of a text on " modern physics . " Indeed , it is the basis for the treatment of relativity in such a text that I am now writing with Robert Eisberg . That text will be the third and concluding ...
Author: Robert Resnick
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471717256
Category: Science
Page: 245
View: 854
This book gives an excellent introduction to the theory of special relativity. Professor Resnick presents a fundamental and unified development of the subject with unusually clear discussions of the aspects that usually trouble beginners. He includes, for example, a section on the common sense of relativity. His presentation is lively and interspersed with historical, philosophical and special topics (such as the twin paradox) that will arouse and hold the reader's interest. You'll find many unique features that help you grasp the material, such as worked-out examples,summary tables,thought questions and a wealth of excellent problems. The emphasis throughout the book is physical. The experimental background, experimental confirmation of predictions, and the physical interpretation of principles are stressed. The book treats relativistic kinematics, relativistic dynamics, and relativity and electromagnetism and contains special appendices on the geometric representation of space-time and on general relativity. Its organization permits an instructor to vary the length and depth of his treatment and to use the book either with or following classical physics. These features make it an ideal companion for introductory courses.