MINKOWSKI'S DISCOVERY OF THE MULTISPACE PARADIGM OF REALITY

The goal of the present paper is to reconstruct the history of Minkowski spacetime, focusing on the specific understanding that Minkowski had of his own model in the context of his worldview. To achieve it, we will first take a look at Minkowski’s personal academic history. By exploring his scientific development, certain key elements in his approach to mathematics and physics will be highlighted, so that his worldview is put into perspective and supported by evidence. Afterwards, a brief summary of Einstein’s work on special relativity is presented, with the aim to speculate on Einstein’s own way of interpreting spacetime. This will also set up the foundation for a comparison with Minkowski. Then, we will analyze the main lectures through which Minkowski presented his geometric model of spacetime to the German scientific community, focusing especially on Raum und Zeit. Here, Minkowski’s worldview is further articulated. Last but not least, we will endorse that, despite Minkowski’s work becoming crucial for Einstein and Einstein's interpretation of spacetime most likely growing closer to Minkowski's, the two scientists ultimately shared crucial differences in weltanschauung.

The Frontiers Collection, 2016

Over a hundred years ago in his paper Space and Time Hermann Minkowski demonstrated the profound meaning of the relativity postulate-the experimental fact that physical phenomena are the same in all inertial reference frames implies that the Universe is an absolute four-dimensional world in which all moments of time have equal existence due to their belonging to the fourth (time) dimension. Since then there has been no consensus on the reality of this absolute world, which we now call Minkowski spacetime or simply spacetime. I will argue that facing the ultimate judge-the experimental evidence-allows us to settle this issue once and for all.

2012

One wrong assumption may be our belief that we live in a unique spacetime continuum. The Multispace Model advances the hypothesis that the universe is a multispace world, filled with countless independent and overlapping spaces. The model is based on the author’s discovery of a 3D Space-Time Diagram (3DSD) of special relativity, which he introduces to the reader following a series of hypothetical hints left by Minkowski. The author wouldn’t tell if the famous mathematician really left these hints for posterity. It’s up to you to decide. The Multispace Model introduces the reader to several hypotheses. Reference frames of special relativity are independent physical spaces, hypothesis that confirms Minkowski’s 1908 declaration that the world is composed of an infinite number of spaces. The model also leads us believe that space and time may not be the most basic constituents of reality. Some spaces, like those holding fundamental particles, are relativistically orthogonal to the space...

Springer eBooks, 2009

An often repeated account of the genesis of special relativity tells us that relativity theory was to a considerable extent the fruit of an operationalist philosophy of science. Indeed, Einstein's 1905 paper stresses the importance of rods and clocks for giving concrete physical content to spatial and temporal notions. I argue, however, that it would be a mistake to read too much into this. Einstein's operationalist remarks should be seen as serving rhetoric purposes rather than as attempts to promulgate a particular philosophical position-in fact, Einstein never came close to operationalism in any of his philosophical writings. By focussing on what could actually be measured with rods and clocks Einstein shed doubt on the empirical status of a number of pre-relativistic concepts, with the intention to persuade his readers that the applicability of these concepts was not obvious. This rhetoric manoeuvre has not always been rightly appreciated in the philosophy of physics. Thus, the influence of operationalist misinterpretations, according to which associated operations strictly define what a concept means, can still be felt in present-day discussions about the conventionality of simultaneity. The standard story continues by pointing out that Minkowski in 1908 supplanted Einstein's approach with a realist spacetime account that has no room for a foundational role of rods and clocks: relativity theory became a description of a four-dimensional "absolute world." As it turns out, however, it is not at all clear that Minkowski was proposing a substantivalist position with respect to spacetime. On the contrary, it seems that from a philosophical point of view Minkowski's general position was not very unlike the one in the back of Einstein's mind. However, in Minkowski's formulation of special relativity it becomes more explicit that the content of spatiotemporal concepts relates to considerations about the form of physical laws. If accepted, this position has important consequences for the discussion about the conventionality of simultaneity.

Pier Sandro Scano, 2024

The topic is whether the 4-dimensional structure constitutes a proven theory and whether it completely and effectively describes space-time phenomena. Spacetime is almost universally assumed as the basic structure for physical and cosmological thinking. Its meaning lies in the fusion of time and space into a unified entity. In the article, the theoretical foundation and mathematical formalism are analysed. The theory is confirmed by an incontrovertible quantity of experimental verifications. However reasons for reflection emerge, starting from the one-way character of time. The conclusion is that on space and time we know little, in the state, to be able to affirm a definitive and testable theory. Further research is necessary on what is assumed to be indisputable. Finally, it doesn't seem sustainable that Special Relativity, supplemented by General Relativity, constitutes a complete theory of spatiotemporal relations.

Springer Handbook of Spacetime, 2014

We put forward a new view of relativity theory that makes the existence of a flow of time compatible with the four-dimensional block universe. To this end, we apply the creation-discovery view elaborated for quantum mechanics to relativity theory and in such a way that time and space become creations instead of discoveries and an underlying non temporal and non spatial reality comes into existence. We study the nature of this underlying non temporal and non spatial reality and reinterpret many aspects of the theory within this new view. We show that data of relativistic measurements are sufficient to derive the three-dimensionality of physical space. The nature of light and massive entities is reconsidered, and an analogy with human cognition is worked out.

Esi News, 2008

International Journal of Modern Physics A, 1996

We unify the gravitational field with its source by considering a new type of 5D manifold in which space and time are augmented by an extra dimension which induces 4D matter. The classical tests of relativity are satisfied, and for solitons we obtain new effects which can be tested astrophysically. The canonical cosmological models are in agreement with observations, and we gain new insight into the nature of the big bang. Our inference is that the world may be pure geometry in 5D.

Time is a monotonic strictly increasing single valued real parameter that exists in spacetime. Here we consider an observer in his rest frame belonging to the Minkowskian spacetime.The order of the sequence of events on his World line is strictly preserved in the sense that the order of the sequence of events remains invariant under Lorentz transformations in Minkowskian spacetime: because the world line of the observer is always time-like. 1.INTRODUCTION Time is awake when all things sleep. Time stands straight when all things fall. Time shuts in all and will not be shut. Is,was,and shall be are Time`s children. O Reasoning, be witness, be stable. [1] VYASA,the Mahabharata [ca.A.D 400] This universe has basic temporal structure. The fundamental nature of TIME in relation to human consciousness is evident as soon as we think that our judgements related to time and events in time appear themselves to be IN TIME. Our analysis concerning SPACE do not appear in any obvious sense to be IN SPACE. But SPACE seems to be appeared to us all of a piece, whereas TIME comes to us only BIT by BIT. The Past exists only in our memory and the Future is hidden from us. Only the Present is the physical reality experienced by us. Thus TIME is always an ONE-WAY membrane. We cannot go from Present to the Past; while one can perform backward and forward motion in SPACE. The free mobility in SPACE leads to the idea of transportable rigid rods. The absence of free mobility in TIME leads to the concept ONE-WAY membrane TIME is a monotonic strictly increasing single valued real parameter corresponding to a non - spatial dimension represented by a straight line in Minkowskian spcetime and the SPACE is three dimensional. Minkowski unified space and time to a single entity called spacetime which is absolute. Einstein used the concept of spacetime for constructing spacetime geometry so that physics becomes part and parcel of geometry in Minkowskian spacetime. Einstein introduced the concept square of the distance between two events ds2 = -dx2-dy2-dz2+dT2 [2] here ds is distance between two events P(x,y,z,T) and Q(x+dx,y+dy,z+dz,T+dT).If ds2 is greater than zero the separation between events is called time-like;if ds2= 0, the separation between events is called null-like leading to the concept of Light Cone Structure in Special Theory of Relativity([3] &[4]) and if ds2 is less than zero, the separation between events is called space-like. Time-like events are causally connected and also null-like events are causally connected; there is no causal connection between events separated by space-like interval. All real particles trace curves in space time. These curves are called time-like curves. Light rays travel along null curve in spacetime.Here we are concerned only with time-like curve so that the order of sequence of occurrence of events shall be the same for every observer under admissible co-ordinates transformations. The world view proposed by Minkowski is often termed as Minkowskian spacetime [5] or M-space. It is said to have a (3+1) description of spacetime. Here “3” represents the Three Dimensional Euclidean space and “1” the One Dimensional time. We introduce spacetime co-ordinates to order events. In Mspace, the co-ordinates of an event can be represented by an ordered set of four real numbers, <x1,x2,x3,x4>. Here the numbers x1, x2, x3 and x4 are taken to be PURE real numbers. 1,2,3,4 are superscripts used to specify the co-ordinates. It is always convenient to consider a Lorentz frame with orthonormal basis vectors e1,e2,, e3, and e4 [1]. Relative to the origin of this frame the time-like worldline of a particle with real non-zero restmass has a co-ordinates description