Avviso di Seminario
Dr. C.S. Unnikrishnan TATA Institute for Fundamental Research, Bombay, India
Giovedi 13 Maggio ore 15, Dipartimento di Fisica, Aula 131
RECONSIDERING SPECIAL RELATIVITY: IMPLICATIONS AND EXPERIMENTAL TESTS
Abstract: A basic characteristic of the theory of Special Relativity (SR) is the denial of any preferred or absolute frame. When this theory was developed in 1905, there was neither any knowledge of a vast Universe, nor any indications of a finite age of the Universe after a big bang origin. Such a Universe provides an absolute frame and also absolute time, and the question arises how SR could be consistent with this absolute space and time. I will demonstrate that all results of special relativity are in fact a consequence of the gravitational interaction of the local physical system with all the matter in the Universe. In other words, all relativistic effects in apparently gravity-free (flat) space and time are due to the background gravity of the Universe and not due to kinematics. A theory of relativity based on the gravitational interaction with the whole Universe is Cosmic Relativity. This theory can consistently deal with both inertial and noninertial frames in flat space- time, unlike SR. I will describe the theory of cosmic relativity (CR), its advantages over special relativity, and its better consistency with experiments. In particular it will be shown that the results of the Hafele-Keating experiment on round-trip clock comparison can be explained consistently only if the gravity of the Universe is taken into consideration. Applications of CR in quantum physics will be highlighted.
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