Minkowski Spacetime: A Hundred Years Later: 165 (Fundamental Theories of Physics, 165) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9048134749 ISBN 13: 9789048134748

Publisher: Springer, 2010

Synopsis

This volume is dedicated to the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hermann Minkowski s paper Raum und Zeit in 1909 [1]. The paper presents the textofthetalkMinkowskigaveatthe80thMeetingoftheGermanNaturalScientists and Physicians in Cologne on September 21, 1908. Minkowski s work on the spacetime representation of special relativity had a huge impact on the twentieth century physics, which can be best expressed by merely stating what is undeniable that modern physics would be impossible wi- out the notion of spacetime. It is suf cient to mention as an example only the fact that general relativity would be impossible without this notion; Einstein succeeded to identifygravitywith the curvatureofspacetime onlywhen he overcamehis initial hostile reactionto Minkowski sfour-dimensionalrepresentationof special relativity and adopted spacetime as the correct relativistic picture of the world. While there exists an unanimous consensus on the mathematical signi cance of spacetime for theoretical physics, for a hundred years there has been no consensus on the nature of spacetime itself. The rst sign of this continuing controversy was Sommerfeld s remark in his notes on Minkowski s article [2]: What will be the epistemologicalattitudetowardsMinkowski sconceptionofthetime-spaceproblem is another question, but, as it seems to me, a question which does not essentially touch his physics .

About this title

From the Back Cover

This volume is dedicated to the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hermann Minkowski's paper "Space and Time" in 1909. His work on the spacetime representation of special relativity had a huge impact on the twentieth century physics to the extent that modern physics would be impossible without the notion of spacetime. While there is consensus on the mathematical significance of spacetime in theoretical physics, for a hundred years there has been no consensus on the nature of spacetime itself. We owe Minkowski a clear answer to the question of the nature of spacetime -- whether it is only a mathematical space or represents a real four-dimensional world. A century after its publication the original Minkowski paper still represents an enrichment to the physicists, especially the relativists, who read it with the intent to fully investigate the depth of Minkowski's ideas on space and time and the physical meaning of special relativity.

The volume begins with an excellent retranslation of Minkowski's paper by Dennis Lehmkuhl, accompanied by the original German version of the article. The fourteen contributions are divided into three parts entitled "The Impact of Minkowski Spacetime on the Twentieth Century Physics from a Historical Perspective", "Implications of Minkowski Spacetime for Theoretical Physics", and "Conceptual and Philosophical Issues of Minkowski Spacetime."

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9048134749
• ISBN 13: 9789048134748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 326
• Editor: Petkov Vesselin