All physicists would agree that one of the most fundamental problems
of the 21st century physics is the dimensionality of the world. In the
four-dimensional world of Minkowski (or Minkowski spacetime) the most
challenging problem is the nature of the temporal dimension. In
Minkowski spacetime it is merely one of the four dimensions, which
means that it is entirely given like the other three spacial
dimensions. If the temporal dimension were not given in its entirety
and only one constantly changing moment of it existed, Minkowski
spacetime would be reduced to the ordinary three-dimensional space.
But if the physical world, represented by Minkowski spacetime, is
indeed four-dimensional with time being the fourth dimension, then
such a world is drastically different from its image based on our
perceptions. Minkowski four-dimensional world is a block Universe, a
frozen world in which nothing happens since all moments of time are
given ‘at once', which means that physical bodies are
four-dimensional worldtubes containing the whole histories in time of
the three-dimensional bodies of our everyday experience. The
implications of a real Minkowski world for physics itself and
especially for our world view are enormous. The main focus of this
volume is the question: is spacetime nothing more than a mathematical
space (which describes the evolution in time of the ordinary
three-dimensional world) or is it a mathematical model of a real
four-dimensional world with time entirely given as the fourth
dimension? It contains fourteen invited papers which either directly
address the main question of the nature of spacetime or explore issues
related to it.
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781402063183
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Springer
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter