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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 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 ...
In order for a string theory to be consistent, the worldsheet theory must be conformally invariant. The obstruction to conformal symmetry is known as the Weyl anomaly and is proportional to the central charge of the worldsheet theory. In order to preserve conformal symmetry the Weyl anomaly, and thus the central charge, must vanish.
Spacetime topology is the topological structure of spacetime, a topic studied primarily in general relativity. This physical theory models gravitation as the curvature of a four dimensional Lorentzian manifold (a spacetime) and the concepts of topology thus become important in analysing local as well as global aspects of spacetime.
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.
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".
However, it arrives there at a different (later) time. The world line of the Earth is therefore helical in spacetime (a curve in a four-dimensional space) and does not return to the same point. Spacetime is the collection of events, together with a continuous and smooth coordinate system identifying the events. Each event can be labeled by four ...