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A spherically symmetric spacetime is one that is invariant under rotations and taking the mirror image. A static spacetime is one in which all metric components are independent of the time coordinate t {\displaystyle t} (so that ∂ ∂ t g μ ν = 0 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {\partial }{\partial t}}g_{\mu \nu }=0} ) and the geometry of the ...
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.
In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams are useful in visualizing and understanding relativistic effects, such as how different observers perceive where and when events ...
The field equations of general relativity are not parameterized by time but formulated in terms of spacetime. Many of the issues related to the problem of time exist within general relativity. At the cosmic scale, general relativity shows a closed universe with no external time. These two very different roles of time are incompatible. [4]
The principle of local Lorentz covariance, which states that the laws of special relativity hold locally about each point of spacetime, lends further support to the choice of a manifold structure for representing spacetime, as locally around a point on a general manifold, the region 'looks like', or approximates very closely Minkowski space ...
The purple (dashed) line shows the path of a photon emitted from the surface of a collapsing star. The green (dot-dash) line shows the path of another photon shining at the singularity. In flat spacetime, the future light cone of an event is the boundary of its causal future and its past light cone is the boundary of its causal past.
This means that spacetime is slightly curved even in the absence of matter or energy. This residual curvature implies a positive cosmological constant Λ to be determined by observation. Due to the small magnitude of the constant, special relativity with its Poincaré group is indistinguishable from de Sitter space for most practical purposes.
A gravitational singularity, spacetime singularity, or simply singularity, is a theoretical condition in which gravity is predicted to be so intense that spacetime itself would break down catastrophically. As such, a singularity is by definition no longer part of the regular spacetime and cannot be determined by "where" or "when".