4-acceleration
In the theory of relativity, four-acceleration is a four-vector (vector in four-dimensional spacetime) that is analogous to classical acceleration (a three-dimensional vector, see three-acceleration in special relativity). Four-acceleration has applications in areas such as the annihilation of antiprotons, resonance of strange particles and radiation of an accelerated charge. Four-acceleration in inertial coordinates In inertial coordinates in special relativity, four-acceleration \mathbf is defined as the rate of change in four-velocity \mathbf with respect to the particle's proper time along its worldline. We can say: \begin \mathbf = \frac &= \left(\gamma_u\dot\gamma_u c,\, \gamma_u^2\mathbf a + \gamma_u\dot\gamma_u\mathbf u\right) \\ &= \left( \gamma_u^4\frac,\, \gamma_u^2\mathbf + \gamma_u^4\frac\mathbf \right) \\ &= \left( \gamma_u^4\frac,\, \gamma_u^4\left(\mathbf + \frac\right) \right), \end where * \mathbf ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Four-gradient
In differential geometry, the four-gradient (or 4-gradient) \boldsymbol is the four-vector analogue of the gradient \vec from vector calculus. In special relativity and in quantum mechanics, the four-gradient is used to define the properties and relations between the various physical four-vectors and tensors. Notation This article uses the metric signature. SR and GR are abbreviations for special relativity and general relativity respectively. c indicates the speed of light in vacuum. \eta_ = \operatorname[1,-1,-1,-1] is the flat spacetime metric tensor, metric of SR. There are alternate ways of writing four-vector expressions in physics: * The four-vector style can be used: \mathbf \cdot \mathbf, which is typically more compact and can use vector notation, (such as the inner product "dot"), always using bold uppercase to represent the four-vector, and bold lowercase to represent 3-space vectors, e.g. \vec \cdot \vec. Most of the 3-space vector rules have analogues in four-ve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Theory Of Relativity
The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in the absence of gravity. General relativity explains the law of gravitation and its relation to the forces of nature. It applies to the cosmological and astrophysical realm, including astronomy. The theory transformed theoretical physics and astronomy during the 20th century, superseding a 200-year-old Classical mechanics, theory of mechanics created primarily by Isaac Newton. It introduced concepts including 4-dimensional spacetime as a unified entity of space and time in physics, time, relativity of simultaneity, kinematics, kinematic and gravity, gravitational time dilation, and length contraction. In the field of physics, relativity improved the science of elementary particles and their fundamental interactions, along with ushering in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Four-force
In the special theory of relativity, four-force is a four-vector that replaces the classical force. In special relativity The four-force is defined as the rate of change in the four-momentum of a particle with respect to the particle's proper time: :\mathbf = . For a particle of constant invariant mass m > 0, \mathbf = m\mathbf where \mathbf=\gamma(c,\mathbf) is the four-velocity, so we can relate the four-force with the four-acceleration \mathbf as in Newton's second law: :\mathbf = m\mathbf = \left(\gamma ,\gamma\right). Here := \left(\gamma m \right)= and := \left(\gamma mc^2 \right)= . where \mathbf, \mathbf and \mathbf are 3-space vectors describing the velocity, the momentum of the particle and the force acting on it respectively. Including thermodynamic interactions From the formulae of the previous section it appears that the time component of the four-force is the power expended, \mathbf\cdot\mathbf, apart from relativistic corrections \gamma/c. This is only ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Proper Acceleration
In relativity theory, proper acceleration is the physical acceleration (i.e., measurable acceleration as by an accelerometer) experienced by an object. It is thus acceleration relative to a free-fall, or inertial, observer who is momentarily at rest relative to the object being measured. Gravitation therefore does not cause proper acceleration, because the same gravity acts equally on the inertial observer. As a consequence, all inertial observers always have a proper acceleration of zero. Proper acceleration contrasts with coordinate acceleration, which is dependent on choice of coordinate systems and thus upon choice of observers (see three-acceleration in special relativity). In the standard inertial coordinates of special relativity, for unidirectional motion, proper acceleration is the rate of change of proper velocity with respect to coordinate time. In an inertial frame in which the object is momentarily at rest, the proper acceleration 3-vector, combined with a zero t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Four-force
In the special theory of relativity, four-force is a four-vector that replaces the classical force. In special relativity The four-force is defined as the rate of change in the four-momentum of a particle with respect to the particle's proper time: :\mathbf = . For a particle of constant invariant mass m > 0, \mathbf = m\mathbf where \mathbf=\gamma(c,\mathbf) is the four-velocity, so we can relate the four-force with the four-acceleration \mathbf as in Newton's second law: :\mathbf = m\mathbf = \left(\gamma ,\gamma\right). Here := \left(\gamma m \right)= and := \left(\gamma mc^2 \right)= . where \mathbf, \mathbf and \mathbf are 3-space vectors describing the velocity, the momentum of the particle and the force acting on it respectively. Including thermodynamic interactions From the formulae of the previous section it appears that the time component of the four-force is the power expended, \mathbf\cdot\mathbf, apart from relativistic corrections \gamma/c. This is only ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Four-momentum
In special relativity, four-momentum (also called momentum-energy or momenergy ) is the generalization of the classical three-dimensional momentum to four-dimensional spacetime. Momentum is a vector in three dimensions; similarly four-momentum is a four-vector in spacetime. The contravariant four-momentum of a particle with relativistic energy and three-momentum , where is the particle's three-velocity and the Lorentz factor, is p = \left(p^0 , p^1 , p^2 , p^3\right) = \left(\frac E c , p_x , p_y , p_z\right). The quantity of above is ordinary non-relativistic momentum of the particle and its rest mass. The four-momentum is useful in relativistic calculations because it is a Lorentz covariant vector. This means that it is easy to keep track of how it transforms under Lorentz transformations. The above definition applies under the coordinate convention that . Some authors use the convention , which yields a modified definition with . It is also possible to define covaria ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Four-velocity
In physics, in particular in special relativity and general relativity, a four-velocity is a four-vector in four-dimensional spacetimeTechnically, the four-vector should be thought of as residing in the tangent space of a point in spacetime, spacetime itself being modeled as a smooth manifold. This distinction is significant in general relativity. that represents the relativistic counterpart of velocity, which is a three-dimensional vector in space. Physical events correspond to mathematical points in time and space, the set of all of them together forming a mathematical model of physical four-dimensional spacetime. The history of an object traces a curve in spacetime, called its world line. If the object has mass, so that its speed is necessarily less than the speed of light, the world line may be parametrized by the proper time of the object. The four-velocity is the rate of change of four-position with respect to the proper time along the curve. The velocity, in contrast, is the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Four-vector
In special relativity, a four-vector (or 4-vector) is an object with four components, which transform in a specific way under Lorentz transformations. Specifically, a four-vector is an element of a four-dimensional vector space considered as a representation space of the standard representation of the Lorentz group, the (,) representation. It differs from a Euclidean vector in how its magnitude is determined. The transformations that preserve this magnitude are the Lorentz transformations, which include spatial rotations and boosts (a change by a constant velocity to another inertial reference frame). Four-vectors describe, for instance, position in spacetime modeled as Minkowski space, a particle's four-momentum , the amplitude of the electromagnetic four-potential at a point in spacetime, and the elements of the subspace spanned by the gamma matrices inside the Dirac algebra. The Lorentz group may be represented by 4×4 matrices . The action of a Lorentz transformation o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Minkowski Space
In mathematical physics, Minkowski space (or Minkowski spacetime) () is a combination of three-dimensional Euclidean space and time into a four-dimensional manifold where the spacetime interval between any two events is independent of the inertial frame of reference in which they are recorded. Although initially developed by mathematician Hermann Minkowski for Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, the mathematical structure of Minkowski spacetime was shown to be implied by the postulates of special relativity. Minkowski space is closely associated with Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity and is the most common mathematical structure on which special relativity is formulated. While the individual components in Euclidean space and time may differ due to length contraction and time dilation, in Minkowski spacetime, all frames of reference will agree on the total distance in spacetime between events.This makes spacetime distance an invariant. Becaus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christoffel Symbols
In mathematics and physics, the Christoffel symbols are an array of numbers describing a metric connection. The metric connection is a specialization of the affine connection to surfaces or other manifolds endowed with a metric, allowing distances to be measured on that surface. In differential geometry, an affine connection can be defined without reference to a metric, and many additional concepts follow: parallel transport, covariant derivatives, geodesics, etc. also do not require the concept of a metric. However, when a metric is available, these concepts can be directly tied to the "shape" of the manifold itself; that shape is determined by how the tangent space is attached to the cotangent space by the metric tensor. Abstractly, one would say that the manifold has an associated (orthonormal) frame bundle, with each "frame" being a possible choice of a coordinate frame. An invariant metric implies that the structure group of the frame bundle is the orthogonal group . As a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Absolute Derivative
In mathematics, the covariant derivative is a way of specifying a derivative along tangent vectors of a manifold. Alternatively, the covariant derivative is a way of introducing and working with a connection on a manifold by means of a differential operator, to be contrasted with the approach given by a principal connection on the frame bundle – see affine connection. In the special case of a manifold isometrically embedded into a higher-dimensional Euclidean space, the covariant derivative can be viewed as the orthogonal projection of the Euclidean directional derivative onto the manifold's tangent space. In this case the Euclidean derivative is broken into two parts, the extrinsic normal component (dependent on the embedding) and the intrinsic covariant derivative component. The name is motivated by the importance of changes of coordinate in physics: the covariant derivative transforms covariantly under a general coordinate transformation, that is, linearly via the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |