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Same topic, new question, I think, so please suppress the Arghh!s. This is about detection of 'tidal gravity' effects inside a uniformly accelerated lab in free space.
As I understand it, if you release a spherical test particle cloud to 'free-fall from rest' inside a uniformly accelerated lab (where the acceleration is due to a force applied to one point, i.e., not Born-rigid acceleration), the cloud will display 'tidal stretching' in the acceleration direction relative to the lab. This can be deduced from the http://aps.arxiv.org/pdf/physics/9810017" that was discussed before.
My question: will one also be able to detect transverse (normal to the acceleration direction), 'tidal squeeze' effects on the particle cloud relative to the lab? I suppose "relative to the lab" is a bit loose, so let me try to tighten that: will an observer riding in (i.e. fixed to) the center of the lab be able to detect both a 'vertical' and a 'horizontal' deviation from the original spherical size of the 'free falling' particle cloud, where an observer 'hanging on to the ceiling' of the lab released the cloud and measured it to be spherical at release.
[edit] I suspect that there is no transverse effect, because the situation is not the same as in a spherically symmetrical gravitational field around a central mass, but accelerated frames of reference are difficult beasts, so I'm not sure...[/edit]
As I understand it, if you release a spherical test particle cloud to 'free-fall from rest' inside a uniformly accelerated lab (where the acceleration is due to a force applied to one point, i.e., not Born-rigid acceleration), the cloud will display 'tidal stretching' in the acceleration direction relative to the lab. This can be deduced from the http://aps.arxiv.org/pdf/physics/9810017" that was discussed before.
My question: will one also be able to detect transverse (normal to the acceleration direction), 'tidal squeeze' effects on the particle cloud relative to the lab? I suppose "relative to the lab" is a bit loose, so let me try to tighten that: will an observer riding in (i.e. fixed to) the center of the lab be able to detect both a 'vertical' and a 'horizontal' deviation from the original spherical size of the 'free falling' particle cloud, where an observer 'hanging on to the ceiling' of the lab released the cloud and measured it to be spherical at release.
[edit] I suspect that there is no transverse effect, because the situation is not the same as in a spherically symmetrical gravitational field around a central mass, but accelerated frames of reference are difficult beasts, so I'm not sure...[/edit]
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