Recent content by ComradeConrad

Now we're getting somewhere! (Even though light cone diagrams make me anxious). Follow up question: How is this "connectedness" in spacetime related to the principle of locality? In my mind they are equivalent, but my mind is a scary place... When I started this thread I noted that general...

I agree with you on both points, Dale. I'm trying to ask about the state of an evolving system at a point in time... or trying to learn how to ask about that.

I was assuming curvature around ("proximal" to) the source. So, like this, where the curvatures share the same source: [curvature] --- flat space ---- [curvature] ---- [source] Is this not patently the case with gravitational waves? The curvature on the left would be... "non-proximal?"

Thank you all for the responses. I think I might be getting closer to being able to ask intelligible questions! This is indeed what I'm getting at. I was trying to generalize from the gravitational wave situation. I was calling a curved region being outside a flat region "non-proximal" to its...

Ya I'm definitely wondering about a "static" field situation. Or how about static from a certain reference frame? There's the idea of "geons" that Wheeler came up with (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geon_(physics)) the gravitational version of which seems at least related. If such a thing isn't...

Thanks for the response! I was trying to make clear that I understand locality and that it has nothing to do with the question I'm doing my best to ask... I'm talking about curvature being distanced from its source with flat space in between, as it is with gravitational waves. What I'm...

Usually spacetime curvature is localized/proximal to what is "causing" it, right? I'm wondering whether there is a term for the situation seen with gravitational waves where there is some relatively flat space between observable gravitational effects and the mass(es) that "caused" them? I'm...

If you keep climbing the tree, eventually you're going to be out on a limb! :-D

My communist friend once called me a "crackpot sage." They might be smarter than I give them credit for... In Freeman Dyson's "Birds and Frogs" allegory, I am pure bird. I have a few STEM undergrad degrees, but blame my dyslexia for not going to grad school. In kindergarten I failed Left and...