- #1
jnorman
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layperson here, so please correct any misconceptions i have on this.
an electron will emit photons if it is accelerated (including changes to either velocity and/or direction of travel).
acceleration occurs if the electron experiences a force.
since GR indicates that gravity is not a force, but rather the shape of spacetime, the electron does not experience a force, per se, in its own frame as it travels through a region of spacetime warped by the presence of mass, since it only traveling along a spacetime geodesic (which it interprets as a "straight" line), even though it appears to an outside observer that the electron has experienced a force because its direction of travel appears to be changing.
so, does an electron moving through a gravitational field radiate in the same way it would moving through a magnetic field? if so, does that have any implications on whetehr gravity is a "force" or not?
an electron will emit photons if it is accelerated (including changes to either velocity and/or direction of travel).
acceleration occurs if the electron experiences a force.
since GR indicates that gravity is not a force, but rather the shape of spacetime, the electron does not experience a force, per se, in its own frame as it travels through a region of spacetime warped by the presence of mass, since it only traveling along a spacetime geodesic (which it interprets as a "straight" line), even though it appears to an outside observer that the electron has experienced a force because its direction of travel appears to be changing.
so, does an electron moving through a gravitational field radiate in the same way it would moving through a magnetic field? if so, does that have any implications on whetehr gravity is a "force" or not?