Lawrence Horwitz 
CONCEPTS IN RELATIVISTIC DYNAMICS [EPUB ebook] 

The mechanics of Newton and Galileo is based on the postulate of a universal time which plays the role of an evolution parameter as well as establishing dynamical correlations between interacting systems. The Michelson–Morley experiment, explained by Einstein in terms of Lorentz transformations, appeared to imply that the time is not absolute, but rather suffers from changes when a system is in motion. Einstein’s thought experiment involving a moving system and a laboratory frame of observation, however, indicates that the action of the Lorentz transformation corresponds to an observed effect recorded in the laboratory on a clock that must be running in precise synchronization with that of the observed system. Therefore one concludes that there must be a universal time, as postulated by Newton, and the time that suffers Lorentz transformation becomes an observable dynamical variable. This book describes the effect this observation had on the development of the theory of Stueckelberg, Horwitz and Piron, and the corresponding conceptual basis for many phenomena which can be described in a relativistically covariant framework.

Contents:

• Introduction


• Classical Relativistic Dynamics


• Quantum Relativistic Dynamics


• Spin in Relativistic Quantum Theory


• The Two Body Problem: Bound States


• Relativistic Scattering Theory and Resonances


• Gauge Fields for Relativistic Mechanics


• Relativistic Classical and Quantum Statistical Mechanics

Readership: Researchers working on relativistic dynamics and related fields.

Key Features:

• Relativistic mechanics has important applications in the development of new technology


• This work has uncovered important new concepts that have not been stressed in current literature


• The recent embedding of the SHP theory into general relativity brings with it many new ideas with application to stellar dynamics and cosmology, topics of high current interest