Can you explain some more? I'm not understanding how that answers the question.
In vacuum, since Ricci curvature is zero, the Einstein field equations don't seem to provide enough constraint on the metric to solve for it. And without the metric, how can we solve for the Christoffel symbols to...
If string theory is correct, we ARE moving in those directions. We are built of strings, which constantly are moving around those dimensions, and can even be wound around them multiple times. Every time we send a light signal, it will go through these dimensions as well. String theory demands...
No one?
If not, can someone move this to the "Beyond the Standard Model" forum as bcrowell suggested?
Again, since this was approaching it from a classical / non-quantum question viewpoint, I was hoping the relativity forum would be more suited. Maybe someone here knew a "loophole" that this...
Yes, I noticed you tried to make that point. I did not miss it, I just felt that because they are not equivalent, and therefore in principle an experiment can measure it. Yes you can make the scenarios more and more complicated, but since they are not equivalent, again in principle an...
You can't call it a geodesic if it has a proper acceleration.
DAMN IT!
I already explained to you twice that in principle you can distinguish between this effect and an external electric field. This effect will not depend on the sign of the charge, while the interaction with an external...
Here's a paper showing the force is from coupling to the curvature:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0012/0012057v2.pdf
For a charged particle freely falling with no external electromagnetic fields, once it gets to a section of spacetime with non-zero Ricci tensor, it will move off the...
Oh god. It seems so obvious now, but I really did forget that. If the stress energy tensor is zero then so is the Ricci tensor.
Spacetime is curved outside a black hole, despite all components of the Ricci tensor being zero. So the Ricci curvature is missing way too much to tell us about...
I do not have a detailed level of knowledge of the subject. So I won't be able to provide much assistance, but this is sometimes also referred to as the "torsion" extension. As GR has a (pseudo)Riemannian geometry, it doesn't have torsion. So searching for GR + torsion, may help.
Along...
"Visualizing" Ricci curvature
Can someone help me visualize the Ricci curvature?
Since it is easier to visualize a surface bending in 3-D, let's try to view this as a sheet with one spatial dimension and one time dimension and embedding into euclidean 3-D.
Since the metric can always be...
Great! Now the thread is simplified to:
Does GR actualy forbid spin-orbit coupling?
Does it matter whether "spin" is the angular momentum of a planet, vs intrinsic angular momentum of matter?
And can someone give an intuitive picture of WHY? I'm having trouble visualizing this.
I gave that explanation to help show why the direction was independent of the charge sign, instead of just stating it as a fact. Therefore what you felt was a catch 22 is resolved: this effect can be distinguished in principle from an external electric field.
Your other comments fall into the...
He actually spammed the physics department student emails awhile back. So I can comment on some of this.
For those not wanting to delve into it, here are some facts about this theory:
1) His theory requires non-local interactions (is not compatible with SR and causality)
2) The "mach"...
Let me make some general statements which I hope we can agree on:
1) Something being true only locally, is not the same as it never being true.
and
2) If a principle is purely local, while that means any real experiment will in fact violate it to some extent, it is still immensely useful as...
First, if there are tests that have ruled one way or the other, that pretty much ends this discussion. I couldn't find any, but if they exist please point them out here.
That leaves the discussion of:
1) How could these been distinguished experimentally, and
2) How precise do tests have...