Questions tagged [spacetime]
Within relativity (both special and general), changes of reference frames can change both the notions of space and of time, with one depending on the other as well. As a consequence, it is necessary to treat both concepts in a unified manner. Hence the term spacetime.
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Confusion about local Minkowski frames
This is sort of a follow-up to the question I asked here:
Confusion about timelike spatial coordinates
The important context is that we imagine a metric that, as $t\rightarrow\infty$, approaches the ...
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Why would speed of light be directional if spacetime is discrete?
In Feynman's Simulating Physics with Computers, Feynman states that
"we might change the idea that space is
continuous to the idea that space perhaps is a simple lattice and everything
is ...
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When you are in a gravitational field, do object far away get physically closer to you as you get closer to the mass?
An observer A is close to a black hole and an observer B one light year away. They are both remaining at constant radial distance from the black hole. A is at 2 Rs away from the center of the black ...
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Local inertial frames, and locally flat geometry, taylor expanding metric coefficients
In general relativity, if there is a line element of the form $$ds^2 = [f(u, v)]du^2 + [h(u, v)]dvdu + [w(u, v)]dv^2$$ which I believe corresponds to metric coefficients $$g_{00} = f(u, v)$$ $$g_{01} =...
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Confusion about timelike spatial coordinates
I'm pretty new to general relativity, and I'm self-studying it using Sean M. Carroll's text on the subject. In Section 2.7, he introduces the notion of closed timelike curves. He gives the example of ...
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Inflation in background free models of the universe
There are many authors who are attempting to construct a model of physics that doesn't rely on the objective existence of spacetime. This is part of the work in quantum gravity. This leads to things ...
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Why doesn't the number of space dimensions equal the number of time dimensions?
It seems as though symmetry is a driving force behind theoretical physics. With symmetry in mind, should we expect that the number of time dimensions should be the same as the number of spatial ...
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What is the dual asymptotic spacetime of a CFT on a particular flat manifold?
According to AdS/CFT correspondence, the dual theory of a boundary CFT on flat spacetime is defined on an asymptotically AdS spacetime. The nature of the bulk spacetime depends on the topology of the ...
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How to relate Riemannian and Lorentzian tetrad fields on the same manifold/spacetime?
Consider Gibbons and Hawkings paper wherein a Riemannian metric $\overset{\mathcal{R}}{g}_{\mu\nu}$ and everywhere well defined normalized line field $l_{\mu}$ on spacetime $M$ may be used to ...
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How to derive Feffermann-Graham expansion for AdS Vaidya geometries?
Introduction
The Feffermann-Graham expansion for an asymptotically AdS spacetime [0] looks like Poincare AdS but with the flat space replaced by a more general metric i.e.
$$ds^2=\frac{1}{z^2}(g_{\mu \...
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Time component of four-velocity
While reading through Spacetime and Geometry by Sean Carroll, I came across the following passage:
"Don't get tricked into thinking that the timelike component of the four velocity of a particle ...
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Test-particles motion in general space-time with *torsion* : geodesics or auto-parallel curves?
Consider a general curved space-time with torsion. In the standard Einstein-Cartan-Kibble-Sciama theory (ECKS or ECSK), torsion is non-dynamical and doesn't propagates in free space. But a more ...
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Time required to reach Black Hole's Event Horizon from outsider perspective?
Let's imagine a pair of particles that is entangled. One (call it $P_1$) is released and then falls to a black hole from a distant $x_0$, (for example $x_0=5r_s$) and velocity $v_0(=1/2c)$, while the ...
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Theoretically, can perfectly flat space exist in the universe?
According to general relativity, mass and energy cause the curvature of space. To have perfectly flat space, there must be a completely empty vacuum state with no mass or energy.
Theoretically, is it ...
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Change of variables from FRW metric to Newtonian gauge
My question arises from a physics paper, where they state that if we take the FRW metric as follows, where $t_c$ and $\vec{x}$ are the FRW comoving coordinates:
$$ds^2=-dt_c^2+a^2(t_c)d\vec{x}_c^2$$
...