Rindler coordinates introduction

[mglaros]

Anyone know where I can find a good introduction to rindler coordinates and uniformly accelerating frames of reference in minkowski space? I have searched the internet but haven't been able to find anything too helpful. I would especially like a good derivation of the rindler coordinates. Thanks!

 

[bcrowell]

This seems pretty complete to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rindler_coordinates Does that work for you?

 

[mglaros]

I saw this. I don't know how wikipedia arrives at the relationships between x,y,z and t in the new frame. Would you mind elaborating on this?

 

[Mentz114]

This does it for me

http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/SCIENCE/Rindler/RindlerHorizon.html

 

[JesseM]

I saw this. I don't know how wikipedia arrives at the relationships between x,y,z and t in the new frame. Would you mind elaborating on this?

When reading wikipedia articles it's always good to look at the references in the article if you want more info, in this case the article links to a section of a textbook which is viewable on google books which shows details of how the coordinate transformation is derived (note that the abbreviation 'MCIF' is defined earlier on p. 235 as 'momentarily comoving inertial frame')

 

[mglaros]

Great! Thanks guys!

 

[JDoolin]

I made this java demo last year, but did not realize until this weekend that it simulates the Rindler Horizon. (I knew it did something strange and surprising, but I didn't know it was called the Rindler Horizon.)

http://www.wiu.edu/users/jdd109/stuff/relativity/LT.html

(1) Draw several approximately vertical lines on the diagram (click, drag, and release)
(2) Press the "Constant Acceleration" Button, and the "Pass Time" button.
(3) Wait, and watch as the vertical lines converge to one line; The point where change in length contraction over time, and the change in position over time exactly cancel out.
(4) At the point where the blue lines meet the horizontal axis, click to create an event. This event will remain stationary for a little while before drifting off. If you could click exactly on the point, (and there weren't any rounding errors or discontinuous velocity jumps in the demo) the event would stay perfectly stationary.
(5) If you want to draw a photon, try to find the slope where the line turns red.