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The term Minkowski diagram refers to a specific form of spacetime diagram frequently used in special relativity. A Minkowski diagram is a two-dimensional graphical depiction of a portion of Minkowski space , usually where space has been curtailed to a single dimension.
Hermann Minkowski (1864–1909) found that the theory of special relativity could be best understood as a four-dimensional space, since known as the Minkowski spacetime.. In physics, Minkowski space (or Minkowski spacetime) (/ m ɪ ŋ ˈ k ɔː f s k i,-ˈ k ɒ f-/ [1]) is the main mathematical description of spacetime in the absence of gravitation.
Commonly a Minkowski diagram is used to illustrate this property of Lorentz transformations. Elsewhere, an integral part of light cones is the region of spacetime outside the light cone at a given event (a point in spacetime). Events that are elsewhere from each other are mutually unobservable, and cannot be causally connected.
For easy visualizations of four dimensions, two space coordinates are often suppressed. An event is then represented by a point in a Minkowski diagram, which is a plane usually plotted with the time coordinate, say , vertically, and the space coordinate, say , horizontally. As expressed by F.R. Harvey
Hyperbolic motion can be visualized on a Minkowski diagram, where the motion of the accelerating particle is along the -axis.Each hyperbola is defined by = / and = / (with =, =) in equation ().
In the special case of an inertial observer in special relativity, the time is measured using the observer's clock and the observer's definition of simultaneity. The concept of proper time was introduced by Hermann Minkowski in 1908, [3] and is an important feature of Minkowski diagrams.
Rindler chart, for = in equation (), plotted on a Minkowski diagram.The dashed lines are the Rindler horizons. The worldline of a body in hyperbolic motion having constant proper acceleration in the -direction as a function of proper time and rapidity can be given by [16]
In Minkowski space, the geodesic will be a straight line. Any curve that differs from the geodesic purely spatially ( i.e. does not change the time coordinate) in any inertial frame of reference will have a longer proper length than the geodesic, but a curve that differs from the geodesic purely temporally ( i.e. does not change the space ...