On the Reality of Minkowski Space

Theoria, 2020

The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has received renewed attention in a recent discussion about the status of Minkowski spacetime in Special Relativity. In that context we find two extreme positions (either spacetime explains symmetries of laws or vice-versa) and a general assumption about the debate being mainly about explanation. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to argue that the ontological dimension of the debate cannot be ignored; second, to claim that taking ontology into account involves considering a third perspective on the relation between spacetime and symmetries of laws; one in which both terms would be somehow derived from common assumptions on the formulation of a given physical theory. RESUMEN: La pregunta sobre la relación entre las simetrías epaciotemporales y las simetrías de las leyes ha recibido atención renovada en la reciente discusión sobre el estatus de la métrica de Minkowsi en la Teoría de la Relatividad Especial. En ese contexto, encontramos dos posiciones extremas (o bien las simetrías espaciotem-porales explican las simetrías de las leyes o viceversa) y el supuesto general de que el debate tiene que ver prima-riamente con la cuestión de la prioridad explicativa. El objetivo de este artículo es doble: primero, argumentar que la dimensión ontológica del debate no puede ser ignorada; segundo, defender que atender a esta dimensión implica considerar una tercera perspectiva sobre la relación entre espaciotiempo y simetrías, en la cual ambos términos se derivarían de los presupuestos implicados en la formulación de cierta teoría física.

Convergetics Research Center , 2024

This article explores Hermann Minkowski's groundbreaking 1908 lecture Space and Time, which introduced the concept of four-dimensional spacetime. Contrary to popular belief, Minkowski's Theory of the Absolute World proposed a multispace paradigm, suggesting that reality consists of multiple independent spacetimes. This theory challenges the conventional singular spacetime continuum and addresses fundamental questions in physics and cosmology, including wave-particle duality, the constancy of the speed of light, and quantum entanglement. The article examines the misinterpretation of Minkowski's theory by the scientific community and its implications for modern physics. Key concepts such as worldpoint, worldlines, and proper time are explained. Practical applications of the multispace paradigm, like electromagnetic travel, are also discussed. Minkowski's work provides new insights into unresolved issues and has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. "While there exists an unanimous consensus on the mathematical significance of spacetime for theoretical physics, for a hundred years there has been no consensus on the nature of spacetime itself."-Vesselin Petkov[1] I dedicate this work to Hermann Minkowski, who discovered the Paradigm of Multispace Reality. I hope this contribution will help the world recognize his exceptional genius. License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Contents 7 References 9 Notes 9

The Frontiers Collection, 2009

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.

Relativity and the Dimensionality of the World, 2007

Since the [relativity] postulate comes to mean that only the four-dimensional world in space and time is given by phenomena, but that the projection in space and in time may still be undertaken with a certain degree of freedom, I prefer to call it the postulate of the absolute world. H. Minkowski [1, p. 83] The basic idea is to present the essentials of relativity from the Minkowskian point of view, that is, in terms of the geometry of space-time... because it is to me (and I think to many others) the key which unlocks many mysteries. My ambition has been to make space-time a real workshop for physicists, and not a museum visited occasionally with a feeling of awe.

2015

Following Minkowski's formulation of special relativity, it is generally accepted that we live in a four-dimensional world consisting of three space and one time dimension. Due to its fundamental importance, a variety of arguments have been proposed over the years attempting to derive this spacetime structure from underlying physical principles. In our approach, we show how Minkowski spacetime arises from the geometrical properties of three dimensional space. We demonstrate this through modeling physical space with Clifford's geometric algebra of three dimensions. We indeed find using this representation that a time-like dimension arises naturally within this space but also extends spacetime to eight dimensions through incorporating four spin degrees of freedom. This expanded arena of spacetime produces a generalized group of Lorentz transformations and provides a natural description of fundamental particles. Nearly all standard results are returned in this expanded structur...

Space, Time, and Spacetime, 2010

I. Ever since Minkowski published his four-dimensional representation of space-time, the dominant view in physics and philosophy has been that time is a fourth dimension such that human perception of change and the passage of time is a mere illusion, due to our particular slicing of space-time. But fourdimensional space-time is a block universe. This conclusion takes the form of an inference from the measurable and observable evidence. Traditionally the block universe was inferred from the stipulation of relative simultaneity as a consequence of the Special theory of relativity (STR) (Eddington, Einstein, Gödel). But newer defences infer a static block universe from the well-known relativisitic effects: length contraction, time dilation, the twin paradox. The argument states that such relativistic effects would be impossible in a threedimensional world. As they occur and are observed, it is legitimate to infer a) that the physical world is four-dimensional, and not just a mathematical representation, and b) that this four-dimensional world is static and timeless. (Lockwood 2005; Petkov 2005, Ch. 4) Yet it is by no means clear that Minkowski himself was a believer in the block universe. In his 1908 Cologne lecture on 'Space and Time' he speaks of a four-dimensional physics but concedes that a 'necessary' time order can be established at every world point. The conception of the block universe, however, focuses on Minkowski's geometric approach, which is based on his world postulate. But an alternative view has been in circulation since the 1910s according to which the nature of space-time has to be based on the behaviour of light. These axiomatic approaches constitute a light geometry, according to which the behaviour of signal propagation, under thermodynamic aspects, form histories of trajectories in space-time. It is the assertion of this paper that they give rise to a different inference regarding the nature of space-time. If we built our inferences to the nature of space-time on other aspects of the physical 1 11,•c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 world, which nevertheless fall within the domain of the Minkowski space-time conception -dissipation and energy flows -we arrive at a dynamic conception of Minkowski space-time.

The expanding worlds of general relativity, 1999

The importance of the theory of relativity for twentieth-century physics, and the appearance of the Gottingen mathematician Hermann Minkowski at a turning point in its history have both attracted significant historical attention. The rapid growth in scientific and philosophical interest in the principle of relativity has been linked to the intervention of Minkowski by Tetu Hirosige, who identified Minkowski's publications as the turning point for the theory of relativity, and gave him credit for having clarified its fundamental importance for all of ...

Space, Time, and Spacetime, 2010