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Doubly Special Relativity
Doubly special relativity (DSR) – also called deformed special relativity – is a modified theory of special relativity in which there is not only an observer-independent maximum velocity (the speed of light), but also an observer-independent maximum energy scale (the Planck energy) and/or a minimum length scale (the Planck length). This contrasts with other Lorentz-violating theories, such as the Standard-Model Extension, where Lorentz invariance is instead broken by the presence of a preferred frame. The main motivation for this theory is that the Planck energy should be the scale where as yet unknown quantum gravity effects become important and, due to invariance of physical laws, this scale should remain fixed in all inertial frames. History First attempts to modify special relativity by introducing an observer-independent length were made by Pavlopoulos (1967), who estimated this length at about . In the context of quantum gravity, Giovanni Amelino-Camelia (2000) intr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Relativity
In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between Spacetime, space and time. In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, Annus Mirabilis papers#Special relativity, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", the theory is presented as being based on just Postulates of special relativity, two postulates: # The laws of physics are Invariant (physics), invariant (identical) in all Inertial frame of reference, inertial frames of reference (that is, Frame of reference, frames of reference with no acceleration). This is known as the principle of relativity. # The speed of light in vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of the motion of light source or observer. This is known as the principle of light constancy, or the principle of light speed invariance. The first postulate was first formulated by Galileo Galilei (see ''Galilean invariance''). Background Special relativity builds upon important physics ide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorentz–FitzGerald Contraction
Length contraction is the phenomenon that a moving object's length is measured to be shorter than its proper length, which is the length as measured in the object's own rest frame. It is also known as Lorentz contraction or Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction (after Hendrik Lorentz and George Francis FitzGerald) and is usually only noticeable at a substantial fraction of the speed of light. Length contraction is only in the direction in which the body is travelling. For standard objects, this effect is negligible at everyday speeds, and can be ignored for all regular purposes, only becoming significant as the object approaches the speed of light relative to the observer. History Length contraction was postulated by George FitzGerald (1889) and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1892) to explain the negative outcome of the Michelson–Morley experiment and to rescue the hypothesis of the stationary aether ( Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction hypothesis). Although both FitzGerald and Lorentz all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fock–Lorentz Symmetry
Lorentz invariance follows from two independent postulates: the principle of relativity and the principle of constancy of the speed of light. Dropping the latter while keeping the former leads to a new invariance, known as Fock–Lorentz symmetry or the projective Lorentz transformation. The general study of such theories began with Fock, who was motivated by the search for the general symmetry group preserving relativity without assuming the constancy of ''c''. This invariance does not distinguish between inertial frames (and therefore satisfies the principle of relativity) but it allows for a varying speed of light in space, ''c''; indeed it allows for a non-invariant ''c''. According to Maxwell's equations, the speed of light satisfies : c = \frac, where ''ε''0 and ''μ''0 are the electric constant and the magnetic constant. If the speed of light depends upon the spacetime coordinates of the medium, say ''x'', then : c(x) = \frac, where \chi (x) represents the vacuum as a varia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planck Units
In particle physics and physical cosmology, Planck units are a system of units of measurement defined exclusively in terms of four universal physical constants: ''Speed of light, c'', ''Gravitational constant, G'', ''Reduced Planck constant, ħ'', and Boltzmann constant, ''k''B (described further below). Expressing one of these physical constants in terms of Planck units yields a numerical value of 1 (number), 1. They are a system of natural units, defined using fundamental properties of Nature#Matter and energy, nature (specifically, properties of vacuum, free space) rather than properties of a chosen Prototype (metrology), prototype object. Originally proposed in 1899 by German physicist Max Planck, they are relevant in research on unified theories such as quantum gravity. The term Planck scale refers to quantities of space, time, energy and other units that are similar in magnitude to corresponding Planck units. This region may be characterized by particle energy, energies of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST, also FGRST), formerly called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Its main instrument is the Large Area Telescope (LAT), with which astronomers mostly intend to perform an all-sky survey studying astrophysical and cosmological phenomena such as active galactic nuclei, pulsars, other high-energy sources and dark matter. Another instrument aboard Fermi, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM; formerly GLAST Burst Monitor), is being used to study gamma-ray bursts and solar flares. Fermi, named for high-energy physics pioneer Enrico Fermi, was launched on 11 June 2008 at 16:05 UTC aboard a Delta II 7920-H rocket. The mission is a joint venture of NASA, the United States Department of Energy, and government agencies in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Sweden, becoming the most sensitive gamma-ray telescope on orbit, succeeding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamma Ray Burst
In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme electromagnetic emissions are second only to the Big Bang as the most energetic and luminous phenomenon ever known. Gamma-ray bursts can last from a few milliseconds to several hours. After the initial flash of gamma rays, a longer-lived afterglow is emitted, usually in the longer wavelengths of X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwave or radio frequencies. The intense radiation of most observed GRBs is thought to be released during a supernova or superluminous supernova as a high-mass star implodes to form a neutron star or a black hole. Short-duration (sGRB) events are a subclass of GRB signals that are now known to originate from the cataclysmic merger of binary neutron stars. The sources of most GRB are billions of light years away from Earth, implying that th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can move no faster than the speed of light measured in vacuum. The photon belongs to the class of boson particles. As with other elementary particles, photons are best explained by quantum mechanics and exhibit wave–particle duality, their behavior featuring properties of both waves and particles. The modern photon concept originated during the first two decades of the 20th century with the work of Albert Einstein, who built upon the research of Max Planck. While Planck was trying to explain how matter and electromagnetic radiation could be in thermal equilibrium with one another, he proposed that the energy stored within a material object should be regarded as composed of an integer number of discrete, equal-sized parts. To explain the pho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Effective Field Theory
In physics, an effective field theory is a type of approximation, or effective theory, for an underlying physical theory, such as a quantum field theory or a statistical mechanics model. An effective field theory includes the appropriate degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry), degrees of freedom to describe physical phenomena occurring at a chosen length scale or energy scale, while ignoring substructure and degrees of freedom at shorter distances (or, equivalently, at higher energies). Intuitively, one averages over the behavior of the underlying theory at shorter length scales to derive what is hoped to be a simplified model at longer length scales. Effective field theories typically work best when there is a large separation between length scale of interest and the length scale of the underlying dynamics. Effective field theories have found use in particle physics, statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, general relativity, and hydrodynamics. They simplify calculati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmic Ray
Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own galaxy, and from distant galaxies. Upon impact with Earth's atmosphere, cosmic rays produce showers of secondary particles, some of which reach the surface, although the bulk are deflected off into space by the magnetosphere or the heliosphere. Cosmic rays were discovered by Victor Hess in 1912 in balloon experiments, for which he was awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics. Direct measurement of cosmic rays, especially at lower energies, has been possible since the launch of the first satellites in the late 1950s. Particle detectors similar to those used in nuclear and high-energy physics are used on satellites and space probes for research into cosmic rays. Data from the Fermi Space Telescope (2013) have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin Limit
The Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin limit (GZK limit or GZK cutoff) is a theoretical upper limit on the energy of cosmic ray protons traveling from other galaxies through the intergalactic medium to our galaxy. The limit is (50 EeV), or about 8 joules (the energy of a proton travelling at ≈ % the speed of light). The limit is set by the slowing effect of interactions of the protons with the microwave background radiation over long distances (≈ 160 million light-years). The limit is at the same order of magnitude as the upper limit for energy at which cosmic rays have experimentally been detected, although indeed some detections appear to have exceeded the limit, as noted below. For example, one extreme-energy cosmic ray, the Oh-My-God Particle, which has been found to possess a record-breaking (50 joules) of energy (about the same as the kinetic energy of a 95 km/h baseball). In the past, the apparent violation of the GZK limit has inspired cosmologists and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Position Space
In physics and geometry, there are two closely related vector spaces, usually three-dimensional but in general of any finite dimension. Position space (also real space or coordinate space) is the set of all ''position vectors'' r in Euclidean space, and has dimensions of length; a position vector defines a point in space. (If the position vector of a point particle varies with time, it will trace out a path, the trajectory of a particle.) Momentum space is the set of all ''momentum vectors'' p a physical system can have; the momentum vector of a particle corresponds to its motion, with dimension of masslengthtime−1. Mathematically, the duality between position and momentum is an example of ''Pontryagin duality''. In particular, if a function is given in position space, ''f''(r), then its Fourier transform obtains the function in momentum space, ''φ''(p). Conversely, the inverse Fourier transform of a momentum space function is a position space function. These quantities and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
