Unraveling the Metric Found in Special Relativity

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In special relativity, the metric is established as -+++ for all observers through Lorentz invariance. There is debate over whether this metric arises from the constancy of light or if Minkowski's earlier work laid the groundwork for Einstein's theories. The historical context of how the metric was derived remains ambiguous due to the evolution of terminology and tensor notation after 1905. Multiple proofs and axiomatizations exist for the same fact, highlighting the complexity of the topic. Understanding the origins of the metric requires careful consideration of both historical and theoretical perspectives.
Emilie.Jung
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In special relativity, we can prove that the metric is -+++ for all observers and that is by making use out of lorentz invariance. Some on this forum say that it comes as a result of constancy of light and others say that Minkowski predated einstein in making that metric, which was confusing. So, how would we make sure how was that metric found?
 
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Emilie.Jung said:
Some on this forum say that it comes as a result of constancy of light and others say that Minkowski predated einstein in making that metric, which was confusing.

The same fact can be proved in more than one way, and the same theory can be described using more than one axiomatization. Are you asking how it was first done historically? That's probably going to be ambiguous because the terminology and notation of tensors wasn't applied to this subject until long after 1905.
 

Thread 'EPR revisited'

In an inertial frame of reference (IFR), there are two fixed points, A and B, which share an entangled state $$ \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|0>_A|1>_B+|1>_A|0>_B) $$ At point A, a measurement is made. The state then collapses to $$ |a>_A|b>_B, \{a,b\}=\{0,1\} $$ We assume that A has the state ##|a>_A## and B has ##|b>_B## simultaneously, i.e., when their synchronized clocks both read time T However, in other inertial frames, due to the relativity of simultaneity, the moment when B has ##|b>_B##...
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