|
Vesselin Petkov Concordia University If in addition to the horizontal light ray that bends in the Einstein thought experiment involving an elevator at rest in a gravitational field, one considers two extra light rays parallel and anti-parallel to the gravitational acceleration, it turns out that in order to account for the simultaneous arrival of all three rays at the same point an average coordinate velocity should be defined. If the propagation of the light ray is expressed in terms of the proper time at a given point in the non-inertial reference frame N of the elevator, it is necessary to define a second average velocity - an average proper velocity of light - which is anisotropic. This average velocity makes it possible to calculate the potential, electric field, and the self-force of a charge directly in N without the need to transform the electric field from a local inertial frame.
Tuesday, February 26th 2002, 12:00 |