From the point of view of the general theory of relativity. So was Einstein right? Testing the Theory of Relativity

Only the lazy do not know about the teachings of Albert Einstein, which testifies to the relativity of everything that happens in this mortal world. For almost a hundred years, disputes have been going on not only in the world of science, but also in the world of practicing physicists. Einstein's theory of relativity, described in simple words quite accessible, and is not a secret to the uninitiated.

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A few general questions

Taking into account the peculiarities of the theoretical teachings of the great Albert, his postulates can be ambiguously regarded by the most diverse currents of theoretical physicists, rather high scientific schools, as well as adherents of the irrational current of the physical and mathematical school.

Back at the beginning of the last century, when there was a surge of scientific thought and against the background of social changes certain scientific trends began to emerge, the theory of relativity of everything in which a person lives appeared. No matter how our contemporaries assess this situation, everything in real world really not static special theory Einstein's relativity:

• Times are changing, the views and mental opinion of society on certain problems in the social plan are changing;
• Social foundations and worldview regarding the doctrine of probability in various state systems and under special conditions development of society changed over time and under the influence of other objective mechanisms.
• How did society's views on problems develop? social development, the same was the attitude and opinions about Einstein's theories about time.

Important! Einstein's theory of gravity was the basis for systemic disputes among the most reputable scientists, both at the beginning of its development and during its completion. They talked about her, numerous disputes took place, she became the topic of conversation in the most high-ranking salons in different countries.

Scientists discussed it, it was the subject of conversation. There was even such a hypothesis that the doctrine is accessible for understanding only to three people from the scientific world. When the time came to explain the postulates, the priests of the most mysterious of the sciences, Euclidean mathematics, began. Then an attempt was made to build its digital model and the same mathematically verified consequences of its action on the world space, then the author of the hypothesis admitted that it became very difficult to understand even what he had created. So what is general theory of relativity, What explores and what application has it found in the modern world?

History and roots of the theory

Today, in the vast majority of cases, the achievements of the great Einstein are briefly called the complete denial of what was originally an unshakable constant. It was this discovery that made it possible to refute what is known to all schoolchildren as a physical binomial.

Most of the world's population, one way or another, attentively and thoughtfully or superficially, even once, turned to the pages of the great book - the Bible.

It is in it that you can read about what has become a true confirmation essence of the doctrine- what a young American scientist worked on at the beginning of the last century. The facts of levitation and other fairly common things in Old Testament history once became miracles in modern times. Ether is a space in which a person lived a completely different life. The features of life on the air have been studied by many world celebrities in the field of natural sciences. AND Einstein's theory of gravity confirmed that the ancient book- This is true.

The works of Hendrik Lorentz and Henri Poincaré made it possible to experimentally discover certain features of the ether. First of all, these are works on the creation of mathematical models of the world. The basis was a practical confirmation that when material particles move in the ethereal space, they contract relative to the direction of movement.

The works of these great scientists made it possible to create the foundation for the main postulates of the doctrine. Exactly given fact provides constant material for the assertion that the works of the Nobel laureate and Albert's relativistic theory were and still are plagiarism. Many scientists today argue that many postulates were accepted much earlier, for example:

• The concept of conditional simultaneity of events;
• Principles of the constant binomial hypothesis and criteria for the speed of light.

What to do to understand the theory of relativity? The point is in the past. It was in the works of Poincaré that the hypothesis was expressed that high speeds in the laws of mechanics need to be rethought. Thanks to the statements of the French physicist, the scientific world learned how relative the movement in projection is to the theory of ethereal space.

In static science, a large amount of physical processes were considered for various material objects moving with . The postulates of the general concept describe the processes occurring with accelerating objects, explain the existence of graviton particles and gravity itself. The essence of the theory of relativity in explaining those facts that were previously nonsense for scientists. If it is necessary to describe the features of motion and the laws of mechanics, the relationship of space and time continuum in conditions of approaching the speed of light, the postulates of the theory of relativity should be applied exclusively.

About the theory briefly and clearly

How is the teaching of the great Albert so different from what physicists did before him? Previously, physics was a rather static science, which considered the principles of development of all processes in nature in the sphere of the “here, today and now” system. Einstein made it possible to see everything that happens around not only in three-dimensional space, but also in relation to various objects and points in time.

Attention! In 1905, when Einstein published his theory of relativity, it allowed to explain and in an accessible way to interpret the movement between different inertial calculation systems.

Its main provisions are the ratio of constant velocities of two objects moving relative to each other instead of taking one of the objects, which can be taken as one of the absolute reference factors.

Feature of the doctrine lies in the fact that it can be considered in relation to one exceptional case. Main factors:

1. Straightness of the direction of movement;
2. Uniformity of motion of a material body.

When changing direction or other simple parameters, when a material body can accelerate or turn sideways, the laws of the static theory of relativity are not valid. In this case, the general laws of relativity come into force, which can explain the motion of material bodies in a general situation. Thus, Einstein found an explanation for all the principles of the interaction of physical bodies with each other in space.

Principles of the Theory of Relativity

Doctrine principles

The assertion of relativity for a hundred years is subjected to the most lively discussions. Most scientists consider various options application of postulates as an application of two principles of physics. And this path is the most popular in the field of applied physics. Basic postulates theory of relativity, Interesting Facts , which today found irrefutable confirmation:

• The principle of relativity. Preservation of the ratio of bodies under all laws of physics. Accepting them as inertial frames of reference, which move at constant speeds relative to each other.
• Postulate about the speed of light. It remains an unchanging constant, in all situations, regardless of speed and relationship with light sources.

Despite the contradictions between the new teaching and the basic postulates of one of the most exact sciences, based on constant static indicators, the new hypothesis attracted a fresh look at the world. The success of the scientist was ensured, which was confirmed by the award of the Nobel Prize in the field of exact sciences to him.

What caused such overwhelming popularity, and How did Einstein discover his theory of relativity?? Tactics of a young scientist.

1. Until now, world-famous scientists have put forward a thesis, and only then carried out a number of practical studies. If at a certain moment data were obtained that did not fit the general concept, they were recognized as erroneous with summing up the reasons.
2. The young genius used a radically different tactic, set up practical experiments, they were serial. The results obtained, despite the fact that they could somehow not fit into the conceptual series, lined up in a coherent theory. And no "mistakes" and "errors", all moments relativity hypotheses, examples and the results of the observations clearly fit into the revolutionary theoretical doctrine.
3. The future Nobel laureate denied the need to study the mysterious ether, where light waves propagate. The belief that the ether exists has led to a number of significant misconceptions. The main postulate is the change in the velocities of the light beam relative to the one observing the process in the ethereal medium.

Relativity for dummies

The theory of relativity is the simplest explanation

Conclusion

The main achievement of the scientist is the proof of the harmony and unity of such quantities as space and time. The fundamental nature of the connection of these two continuums as part of three dimensions, combined with the time dimension, made it possible to learn many secrets of nature. material world. Thanks to Einstein's theory of gravity it became available to study the depths and other achievements of modern science, because the full possibilities of the teachings have not been used to date.

Big open secret

Alexander Grishaev, excerpt from the article " Spillikins and wicks of universal gravitation»

“The British don’t clean their guns with bricks: even if they don’t clean ours, otherwise, God forbid, they are not good for shooting ...” - N. Leskov.

8 parabolic mirrors of the ADU-1000 receiving and transmitting antenna complex - part of the Pluton receiving complex of the Center for Deep Space Communications ...

In the early years of the formation of deep space research, it was sadly lost whole line Soviet and American interplanetary stations. Even if the launch took place without failures, as experts say, “in normal mode”, all systems worked normally, all the pre-planned orbit corrections went through normally, communication with the vehicles was suddenly interrupted.

It got to the point that, in the next “window” favorable for the launch, the same devices with the same program were launched in batches, one after the other in pursuit - in the hope that at least one could be brought to a victorious end. But where is it! There was a certain Reason that cut off communication on approach to the planets, which did not give concessions.

Of course, they kept quiet about it. The foolish public was informed that the station passed at a distance, say, 120 thousand kilometers from the planet. The tone of these messages was so cheerful that one involuntarily thought: “Guys are shooting! One hundred twenty thousand is not bad. Could after all and on three hundred thousand pass! You give new, more accurate launches! No one had any idea about the intensity of the drama - that pundits of something there did not understand.

In the end, we decided to try this. The signal by which communication is carried out, let it be known to you, has long been represented in the form of waves - radio waves. The easiest way to imagine what these waves are can be on the "domino effect". The communication signal propagates in space like a wave of falling dominoes.

The speed of wave propagation depends on the speed of the fall of each individual of the knuckles, and since all the knuckles are the same and fall in the same time, the wave speed is a constant value. The distance between the bones of physics is called "wavelength".

An example of a wave is the "domino effect"

Now let's say we have heavenly body(let's call it Venus), marked in this picture with a red doodle. Let's say that if we push the initial knuckle, then each subsequent knuckle will fall on the next one in one second. If exactly 100 tiles fit from us to Venus, the wave will reach it after all 100 tiles fall in succession, spending one second each. In total, the wave from us will reach Venus in 100 seconds.

This is the case if Venus stands still. And if Venus does not stand still? Let's say, while 100 knuckles are falling, our Venus has time to "crawl" to a distance equal to the distance between several knuckles (several wavelengths) what will happen then?

The academics decided what if the wave overtakes Venus according to the very law that schoolchildren use lower grades in puzzles like: “From the point A a train leaves at a speed A km/h, and from the point B at the same time a pedestrian exits with a speed b in the same direction, how long will it take for the train to overtake the pedestrian?

That's when the academics realized that it was necessary to solve such a simple problem for younger students, then things went smoothly. If not for this ingenuity, we would not see the outstanding achievements of interplanetary astronautics.

And what is so cunning here, Dunno, inexperienced in the sciences, will throw up his hands?! And on the contrary, Znayka, experienced in the sciences, will cry out: guard, hold the rogue, this is pseudoscience! According to real, correct science, correctly, this task should be solved in a completely different way! After all, we are not dealing with some kind of low-speed fox-pedist steamers, but with a signal rushing after Venus at the speed of light, which, no matter how fast you, or Venus, run, still catches up with you at the speed of light! Moreover, if you rush towards him, you will not meet him sooner!

Principles of Relativity

- It's like, - Dunno will exclaim, - it turns out that if from the paragraph B me, who is in a starship at point A let them know that a dangerous epidemic has begun on board, for which I have a remedy, it is useless for me to turn around to meet them, because we won't meet before anyway, if the spaceship sent to me is moving at light speed? And this is what it means - I can, with a clear conscience, continue my journey to the point C to deliver a load of diapers for monkeys due to be born exactly next month?

- That's right, - Znayka will answer you, - if you were on a bicycle, then you would need to go as the dotted arrow shows - towards the car that left you. But, if a light-speed vehicle is moving towards you, then whether you will move towards it or move away from it, or stay in place, does not matter - meeting time cannot be changed.

- How is it so, - Dunno will return to our dominoes, - will the knuckles start falling faster? It will not help - it will just be a puzzle about Achilles catching up with a turtle, no matter how fast Achilles runs, it will still take him some time to go the additional distance traveled by the turtle.

No, everything is cooler here - if a beam of light catches up with you, then you, moving, stretch the space. Put the same dominoes on a rubber bandage and pull it - the red cross on it will move, but the knuckles will also move, the distance between the knuckles increases, i.e. the wavelength increases, and thus between you and the starting point of the wave, there will always be the same number of bones. How!

It was I who popularly outlined the foundations of Einstein's Theories of Relativity, the only correct one, scientific theory, which should have been used to calculate the passage of a subluminal signal, including when calculating modes of communication with interplanetary probes.

Let's focus on one point: in relativistic theories (and there are two of them: ONE HUNDRED– the special theory of relativity and general relativity- the general theory of relativity) the speed of light is absolute and cannot be exceeded in any way. And one useful term for the effect of increasing the distance between the knuckles is called " Doppler effect» - the effect of increasing the wavelength, if the wave follows the moving object, and the effect of reducing the wavelength, if the object is moving towards the wave.

So the academicians considered according to the only correct theory, only the probes "for milk" left. Meanwhile, in the 60s of the 20th century, a number of countries produced Venus radar. With the radar of Venus, this postulate of the relativistic addition of velocities can be verified.

American B. J. Wallace in 1969, in the article “Radar Test of the Relative Speed ​​of Light in Space”, he analyzed eight radar observations of Venus published in 1961. The analysis convinced him that the speed of the radio beam ( contrary to the theory of relativity) is algebraically added to the speed of the Earth's rotation. Subsequently, he had problems with the publication of materials on this topic.

We list the articles devoted to the mentioned experiments:

1. V.A. Kotelnikov et al. "The radar installation used in the radar of Venus in 1961" Radio Engineering and Electronics, 7, 11 (1962) 1851.

2. V.A. Kotelnikov et al. "The results of Venus radar in 1961" Ibid., p.1860.

3. V.A. Morozov, Z.G. Trunova "Weak signal analyzer used in the radar of Venus in 1961" Ibid., p.1880.

conclusions, which were formulated in the third article, are understandable even to Dunno, who has understood the theory of falling dominoes, which is stated here at the beginning.

In the last article, in the part where they described the conditions for detecting a signal reflected from Venus, there was the following phrase: “ The narrow-band component is understood as the component of the echo signal corresponding to the reflection from a fixed point reflector ...»

Here the “narrowband component” is the detected component of the signal returned from Venus, and it is detected if Venus is considered ... motionless! Those. guys didn't write directly that Doppler effect is not detected, they instead wrote that the signal is recognized by the receiver only if the motion of Venus in the same direction as the signal is not taken into account, i.e. when the Doppler effect is zero according to any theory, but since Venus was moving, then, therefore, the effect of wave lengthening did not take place, which was prescribed by the theory of relativity.

To the great sadness of the theory of relativity, Venus did not stretch space, and there were much more “dominoes” by the time the signal arrived at Venus than during its launch from Earth. Venus, like the Achilles tortoise, managed to crawl away from the steps of the waves catching up with her at the speed of light.

Obviously, American researchers did the same, as evidenced by the above-mentioned case with Wallace, who was not allowed to publish a paper on the interpretation of the results obtained during the Venus scan. So the commissions to combat pseudoscience functioned properly not only in the totalitarian Soviet Union.

By the way, the lengthening of the waves, as we found out, according to the theory, should indicate the removal of a space object from the observer, and it is called redshift, and this redshift, discovered by Hubble in 1929, underlies the cosmogonic theory of the Big Bang.

Location of Venus showed absence this same bias, and since then, since the successful results of the location of Venus, this theory - the theory of the Big Bang - like the hypotheses of " black holes"And other relativistic nonsense, go into the category science fiction. Fiction for which they give Nobel Prizes not in literature, but in physics!!! Wonderful are thy works, Lord!

P.S. By the 100th anniversary of SRT and the 90th anniversary of general relativity that coincided with it, it turned out that neither one nor the other theory was experimentally confirmed! On the occasion of the anniversary, the project "Gravity Probe B (GP-B) ” worth $ 760 million, which was supposed to give at least one confirmation of these ridiculous theories, but it all ended in great embarrassment. The next article is about that...

Einstein's OTO: "But the king is naked!"

“In June 2004, the UN General Assembly decided to proclaim 2005 the International Year of Physics. The Assembly invited UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to organize activities for the celebration of the Year in cooperation with physical societies and other interest groups around the world...”- Message from the "Bulletin of the United Nations"

Still would! – Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the Special Theory of Relativity ( ONE HUNDRED), 90 years of the General Theory of Relativity ( general relativity) - a hundred years of uninterrupted triumph of the new physics, which overthrew the archaic Newtonian physics from the pedestal, so officials from the UN thought, looking forward to next year's celebrations and celebrations of the greatest genius of all times and peoples, as well as his followers.

But the followers knew better than others that the “brilliant” theories had not shown themselves in any way for almost a hundred years: no predictions of new phenomena were made on their basis and no explanations were made that were already discovered, but not explained by classical Newtonian physics. Nothing at all, NOTHING!

GR did not have a single experimental confirmation!

It was only known that the theory was brilliant, but no one knew what was the use of it. Well, yes, she regularly fed promises and breakfasts, for which an immeasurable dough was released, and at the exit - fantasy novels about black holes, for which Nobel Prizes were given not in literature, but in physics, colliders were built, one after another, one larger than the other, gravitational interferometers bred all over the world, in which, to paraphrase Confucius, in "dark matter", they searched for black cat, which, moreover, was not there, and no one saw the “black matter” itself either.

Therefore, in April 2004, an ambitious project was launched, which was carefully prepared for about forty years and for the final stage of which $ 760 million was released - "Gravity Probe B (GP-B)". Gravity test B was supposed to wind on precision gyroscopes (in other words - tops), no more, no less, Einstein's space-time, in the amount of 6.6 arc seconds, approximately, for a year of flight - just in time for the great anniversary.

Immediately after the launch, they were waiting for victorious reports, in the spirit of "His Excellency's Adjutant" - the "letter" followed the Nth kilometer: "The first arc second of space-time has been successfully wound." But the victorious reports, for which the believers in the most grandiose scam of the 20th century, somehow everything should not have been.

And without victorious reports, what the hell is an anniversary - crowds of enemies of the most progressive teachings with pens and calculators at the ready are waiting to spit on the great teachings of Einstein. So they dropped "international year of physics" on the brakes - he passed quietly and imperceptibly.

There were no victorious reports even immediately after the completion of the mission, in August of the anniversary year: there was only a message that everything was on track, the ingenious theory was confirmed, but we will process the results a little, exactly in a year there will be an exact answer. There was no answer after a year or two. In the end, they promised to finalize the results by March 2010.

And where is the result? Googling the Internet, I found this curious note, in the LiveJournal of one blogger:

Gravity Probe B (GP-B) - aftertraces$760 million. $

So - modern physics has no doubts about general relativity, it would seem, why then do we need an experiment worth 760 million dollars aimed at confirming the effects of general relativity?

After all, this is nonsense - it's the same as spending almost a billion, for example, to confirm the law of Archimedes. Nevertheless, judging by the results of the experiment, this money was not directed at all to the experiment, money was used for PR.

The experiment was carried out using a satellite launched on April 20, 2004, equipped with equipment for measuring the Lense-Thirring effect (as a direct consequence of general relativity). Satellite Gravity Probe B carried on board the most accurate gyroscopes in the world to that day. The scheme of the experiment is well described in Wikipedia.

Already during the period of data collection, questions began to arise regarding the experimental design and the accuracy of the equipment. After all, despite the huge budget, the equipment designed to measure ultrafine effects has never been tested in space. During the data collection, vibrations were revealed due to the boiling of helium in the Dewar, there were unforeseen stops of the gyros, followed by spinning up due to failures in the electronics under the influence of energetic cosmic particles; there were computer failures and loss of "science data" arrays, and the "polhode" effect turned out to be the most significant problem.

Concept "polhode" The roots go back to the 18th century, when the outstanding mathematician and astronomer Leonhard Euler obtained a system of equations for the free motion of rigid bodies. In particular, Euler and his contemporaries (D'Alembert, Lagrange) investigated fluctuations (very small) in measurements of the Earth's latitude, which took place, apparently, due to the Earth's oscillations about the rotation axis (polar axis) ...

GP-B gyroscopes listed by Guinness as the most spherical objects ever made by human hands. The sphere is made of quartz glass and coated with a thin film of superconducting niobium. Quartz surfaces are polished to the atomic level.

Following the discussion of axial precession, you are right to ask a direct question: why do GP-B gyroscopes, listed in the Guinness book as the most spherical objects, also exhibit axial precession? Indeed, in a perfectly spherical and homogeneous body, in which all three main axes of inertia are identical, the polhode period around any of these axes would be infinitely large and, for all practical purposes, it would not exist.

However, GP-B rotors are not "perfect" spheres. The sphericity and homogeneity of the fused quartz substrate make it possible to balance the moments of inertia relative to the axes up to one millionth part - this is already enough to take into account the polholde period of the rotor and fix the track along which the end of the rotor axis will move.

All this was expected. Before the launch of the satellite, the behavior of the GP-B rotors was simulated. Yet the prevailing consensus was that, since the rotors are almost perfect and almost uniform, they will give a very small amplitude polhode track and so big period that the polhode-rotation of the axis would not change significantly throughout the experiment.

However, contrary to favorable forecasts, GP-B rotors in real life made it possible to see a significant axial precession. Given the almost perfectly spherical geometry and uniform composition of the rotors, there are two possibilities:

– internal decomposition of energy;

– external influence with a constant frequency.

It turned out that their combination works. Although the rotor is symmetrical, but, like the Earth described above, the gyroscope is still elastic and sticks out at the equator by about 10 nm. Since the axis of rotation drifts, the bulge of the body surface also drifts. Due to small defects in the structure of the rotor and local boundary defects between the base material of the rotor and its niobium coating, rotational energy can be dissipated internally. This causes the drift track to change without changing the total angular momentum (kind of like it does when spinning a raw egg).

If the effects predicted by general relativity really manifest themselves, then for each year of finding Gravity Probe B in orbit, the axes of rotation of its gyroscopes should deviate by 6.6 arc seconds and 42 arc milliseconds, respectively

Two of the gyroscopes in 11 months due to this effect turned a few tens of degrees, because were untwisted along the axis of minimum inertia.

As a result, gyroscopes designed to measure milliseconds angular arc, were exposed to unplanned effects and errors up to several tens of degrees! In fact it was mission failure, however, the results were simply hushed up. If it was originally planned to announce the final results of the mission at the end of 2007, then they postponed it to September 2008, and then to March 2010 altogether.

As Francis Everitt cheerfully reported, “Due to the interaction of electric charges “frozen” in gyroscopes and the walls of their chambers (the patch effect), and previously unaccounted for effects of reading readings, which have not yet been completely excluded from the data obtained, the measurement accuracy at this stage is limited to 0.1 arc seconds, which makes it possible to confirm with an accuracy better than 1% the effect of geodetic precession (6.606 arc seconds per year), but so far not makes it possible to isolate and verify the phenomenon of entrainment of an inertial frame of reference (0.039 arc seconds per year). Intensive work is underway to calculate and extract measurement interference ... "

That is, as commented on this statement ZZCW : “tens of degrees are subtracted from tens of degrees and angular milliseconds remain, with one percent accuracy (and then the declared accuracy will be even higher, because it would be necessary to confirm the Lense-Thirring effect for complete communism) corresponding key effect OTO…”

No wonder that NASA refused give further millions of dollars in grants to Stanford for an 18-month "advance data analysis" program that was scheduled for the period October 2008 - March 2010.

Scientists who want to get RAW(raw data) for independent confirmation, we were surprised to find that instead of RAW and sources NSSDC they are given only "data of the second level". “Second level” means that “the data has been slightly processed…”

As a result, the Stanfordites, deprived of funding, published the final report on February 5th, which reads:

After subtracting corrections for the solar geodetic effect (+7 marc-s/yr) and the proper motion of the guide star (+28 ± 1 marc-s/yr), the result is −6,673 ± 97 marc-s/yr, to be compared with the predicted −6,606 marc-s/yr of General Relativity

This is the opinion of a blogger unknown to me, whose opinion we will consider the voice of the boy who shouted: “ And the king is naked!»

And now we will cite the statements of highly competent specialists, whose qualifications are difficult to challenge.

Nikolay Levashov "Theory of relativity is a false foundation of physics"

Nikolai Levashov "Einstein's theory, astrophysicists, hushed up experiments"

More detailed And various information about the events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet, you can get on Internet conferences, constantly held on the website "Keys of Knowledge". All Conferences are open and completely free. We invite all waking up and interested ...

General theory of relativity(GR) is a geometric theory of gravity published by Albert Einstein in 1915-1916. Within this theory, which is further development special theory of relativity, it is postulated that gravitational effects are caused not by the force interaction of bodies and fields located in space-time, but by the deformation of space-time itself, which is associated, in particular, with the presence of mass-energy. Thus, in general relativity, as in other metric theories, gravity is not a force interaction. General relativity differs from other metric theories of gravity by using Einstein's equations to relate the curvature of spacetime to the matter present in space.

General relativity is currently the most successful gravitational theory, well supported by observations. The first success of general relativity was to explain the anomalous precession of Mercury's perihelion. Then, in 1919, Arthur Eddington reported the observation of a deflection of light near the Sun during a total eclipse, which confirmed the predictions of general relativity.

Since then, many other observations and experiments have confirmed a significant number of the theory's predictions, including gravitational time dilation, gravitational redshift, signal delay in a gravitational field, and, so far only indirectly, gravitational radiation. In addition, numerous observations are interpreted as confirmation of one of the most mysterious and exotic predictions of the general theory of relativity - the existence of black holes.

Despite the overwhelming success of general relativity, there is discomfort in the scientific community that it cannot be reformulated as the classical limit of quantum theory due to the appearance of irremovable mathematical divergences when considering black holes and space-time singularities in general. A number of alternative theories have been proposed to address this problem. Current experimental evidence indicates that any type of deviation from general relativity should be very small, if it exists at all.

Basic principles of general relativity

Newton's theory of gravity is based on the concept of gravity, which is a long-range force: it acts instantly at any distance. This instantaneous nature of the action is incompatible with the field paradigm of modern physics and, in particular, with the special theory of relativity created in 1905 by Einstein, inspired by the work of Poincaré and Lorentz. In Einstein's theory, no information can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

Mathematically, Newton's gravitational force is derived from the potential energy of a body in a gravitational field. The gravitational potential corresponding to this potential energy obeys the Poisson equation, which is not invariant under Lorentz transformations. The reason for the non-invariance is that the energy in the special theory of relativity is not a scalar quantity, but goes into the time component of the 4-vector. The vector theory of gravity turns out to be similar to Maxwell's theory of the electromagnetic field and leads to negative energy gravitational waves, which is connected with the nature of the interaction: charges (masses) of the same name are attracted in gravitation, and not repelled, as in electromagnetism. Thus, Newton's theory of gravity is incompatible with the fundamental principle of the special theory of relativity - the invariance of the laws of nature in any inertial frame of reference, and the direct vector generalization of Newton's theory, first proposed by Poincaré in 1905 in his work "On the Dynamics of the Electron", leads to physically unsatisfactory results. .

Einstein began searching for a theory of gravity that would be compatible with the principle of the invariance of the laws of nature with respect to any frame of reference. The result of this search was the general theory of relativity, based on the principle of identity of gravitational and inertial mass.

The principle of equality of gravitational and inertial masses

In classical Newtonian mechanics, there are two concepts of mass: the first refers to Newton's second law, and the second to the law of universal gravitation. The first mass - inertial (or inertial) - is the ratio of the non-gravitational force acting on the body to its acceleration. The second mass - gravitational (or, as it is sometimes called, heavy) - determines the force of attraction of the body by other bodies and its own force of attraction. Generally speaking, these two masses are measured, as can be seen from the description, in different experiments, so they do not have to be proportional to each other at all. Their strict proportionality allows us to speak of a single body mass in both non-gravitational and gravitational interactions. By a suitable choice of units, these masses can be made equal to each other. The principle itself was put forward by Isaac Newton, and the equality of masses was verified by him experimentally with a relative accuracy of 10?3. At the end of the 19th century, Eötvös conducted more subtle experiments, bringing the accuracy of the verification of the principle to 10?9. During the 20th century, experimental techniques made it possible to confirm the equality of the masses with a relative accuracy of 10x12-10x13 (Braginsky, Dicke, etc.). Sometimes the principle of equality of gravitational and inertial masses is called the weak principle of equivalence. Albert Einstein put it at the basis of the general theory of relativity.

The principle of movement along geodesic lines

If the gravitational mass is exactly equal to the inertial mass, then in the expression for the acceleration of a body, on which only gravitational forces act, both masses are reduced. Therefore, the acceleration of the body, and hence its trajectory, does not depend on the mass and internal structure of the body. If all bodies at the same point in space receive the same acceleration, then this acceleration can be associated not with the properties of the bodies, but with the properties of the space itself at this point.

Thus, the description of the gravitational interaction between bodies can be reduced to a description of the space-time in which the bodies move. It is natural to assume, as Einstein did, that bodies move by inertia, that is, in such a way that their acceleration in own system count is zero. The trajectories of the bodies will then be geodesic lines, the theory of which was developed by mathematicians back in the 19th century.

The geodesic lines themselves can be found by specifying in space-time an analogue of the distance between two events, traditionally called an interval or a world function. The interval in three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time (in other words, in four-dimensional space-time) is given by 10 independent components of the metric tensor. These 10 numbers form the space metric. It defines the "distance" between two infinitely close points of space-time in different directions. The geodesic lines corresponding to the world lines of physical bodies whose speed is less than the speed of light turn out to be the lines of the greatest proper time, that is, the time measured by a clock rigidly fastened to the body following this trajectory. Modern experiments confirm the motion of bodies along geodesic lines with the same accuracy as the equality of gravitational and inertial masses.

Curvature of space-time

If two bodies are launched from two close points parallel to each other, then in the gravitational field they will gradually either approach or move away from each other. This effect is called the deviation of geodesic lines. A similar effect can be observed directly if two balls are launched parallel to each other over a rubber membrane, on which a massive object is placed in the center. The balls will disperse: the one that was closer to the object pushing through the membrane will tend to the center more strongly than the more distant ball. This discrepancy (deviation) is due to the curvature of the membrane. Similarly, in space-time, the deviation of geodesics (the divergence of the trajectories of bodies) is associated with its curvature. The curvature of space-time is uniquely determined by its metric - the metric tensor. The difference between the general theory of relativity and alternative theories of gravity is determined in most cases precisely in the way of connection between matter (bodies and fields of a non-gravitational nature that create a gravitational field) and the metric properties of space-time.

Space-time GR and the strong equivalence principle

It is often incorrectly considered that the basis of the general theory of relativity is the principle of equivalence of the gravitational and inertial fields, which can be formulated as follows:
A sufficiently small local physical system located in a gravitational field is indistinguishable in behavior from the same system located in an accelerated (with respect to the inertial reference frame) reference frame, immersed in the flat space-time of special relativity.

Sometimes the same principle is postulated as "local validity of special relativity" or called the "strong equivalence principle".

Historically, this principle really played a big role in the development of the general theory of relativity and was used by Einstein in its development. However, in the most final form of the theory, in fact, it is not contained, since the space-time both in the accelerated and in the initial frame of reference in the special theory of relativity is uncurved - flat, and in the general theory of relativity it is curved by any body, and precisely its curvature causes the gravitational attraction of bodies.

It is important to note that the main difference between the space-time of the general theory of relativity and the space-time of the special theory of relativity is its curvature, which is expressed by a tensor quantity - the curvature tensor. In the space-time of special relativity, this tensor is identically equal to zero and the space-time is flat.

For this reason, the name "general relativity" is not entirely correct. This theory is only one of a number of theories of gravity currently being considered by physicists, while the special theory of relativity (more precisely, its principle of space-time metricity) is generally accepted by the scientific community and forms the cornerstone of the basis of modern physics. It should, however, be noted that none of the other developed theories of gravity, except general relativity, has stood the test of time and experiment.

Main Consequences of General Relativity

According to the correspondence principle, in weak gravitational fields, the predictions of general relativity coincide with the results of applying Newton's law of universal gravitation with small corrections that increase as the field strength increases.

The first predicted and verified experimental consequences of general relativity were three classic effect listed below in chronological order of their first inspection:
1. Additional shift of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit compared to the predictions of Newtonian mechanics.
2. Deviation of a light beam in the gravitational field of the Sun.
3. Gravitational redshift, or time dilation in a gravitational field.

There are a number of other effects that can be experimentally verified. Among them, we can mention the deviation and delay (Shapiro effect) of electromagnetic waves in the gravitational field of the Sun and Jupiter, the Lense-Thirring effect (precession of a gyroscope near a rotating body), astrophysical evidence for the existence of black holes, evidence for the emission of gravitational waves by close systems of binary stars and the expansion of the Universe.

So far, reliable experimental evidence refuting general relativity has not been found. The deviations of the measured values ​​of the effects from those predicted by general relativity do not exceed 0.1% (for the above three classical phenomena). Despite this, due to various reasons, theorists have developed at least 30 alternative theories of gravity, and some of them make it possible to obtain results arbitrarily close to general relativity for the corresponding values ​​of the parameters included in the theory.

Who would have thought that a small postal clerk would changefoundations of science of its time? But this happened! Einstein's theory of relativity forced us to reconsider the usual view of the structure of the Universe and opened up new areas of scientific knowledge.

Majority scientific discoveries done by experiment: scientists repeated their experiments many times to be sure of their results. The work was usually carried out in universities or research laboratories of large companies.

Albert Einstein completely changed scientific picture the world without conducting a single practical experiment. His only tools were paper and pen, and he did all his experiments in his head.

moving light

(1879-1955) based all his conclusions on the results of a "thought experiment". These experiments could only be done in the imagination.

The speeds of all moving bodies are relative. This means that all objects move or remain stationary only relative to some other object. For example, a man, motionless relative to the Earth, at the same time rotates with the Earth around the Sun. Or let's say that along the car of a moving train a man is walking in the direction of movement at a speed of 3 km / h. The train is moving at a speed of 60 km/h. Relative to a stationary observer on the ground, the speed of a person will be 63 km / h - the speed of a person plus the speed of a train. If he went against the movement, then his speed relative to a stationary observer would be equal to 57 km / h.

Einstein argued that the speed of light cannot be discussed in this way. The speed of light is always constant, regardless of whether the light source is approaching you, receding from you, or standing still.

The faster the less

From the very beginning, Einstein made some surprising assumptions. He argued that if the speed of an object approaches the speed of light, its dimensions decrease, while its mass, on the contrary, increases. No body can be accelerated to a speed equal to or greater than the speed of light.

His other conclusion was even more surprising and seemed to be contrary to common sense. Imagine that of two twins, one remained on Earth, while the other traveled through space at a speed close to the speed of light. 70 years have passed since the launch on Earth. According to Einstein's theory, time flows more slowly on board the ship, and only ten years have passed there, for example. It turns out that one of the twins who remained on Earth became sixty years older than the second. This effect is called " twin paradox". It sounds incredible, but laboratory experiments have confirmed that time dilation at speeds close to the speed of light really exists.

Merciless conclusion

Einstein's theory also includes the famous formula E=mc 2, where E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light. Einstein claimed that mass can be converted into pure energy. As a result of applying this discovery to practical life atomic energy and the nuclear bomb appeared.

Einstein was a theorist. The experiments that were supposed to prove the correctness of his theory, he left to others. Many of these experiments could not be done until sufficiently accurate measuring instruments were available.

Facts and events

• The following experiment was carried out: an airplane, on which a very accurate clock was set, took off and, having flown around the Earth at high speed, sank at the same point. The clock on board the aircraft was a tiny fraction of a second behind the clock that remained on Earth.
• If a ball is dropped in an elevator falling with free fall acceleration, then the ball will not fall, but, as it were, will hang in the air. This is because the ball and the elevator are falling at the same speed.
• Einstein proved that gravity affects the geometric properties of space-time, which in turn affects the movement of bodies in this space. So, two bodies that started moving parallel to each other will eventually meet at one point.

Curving time and space

Ten years later, in 1915-1916, Einstein developed a new theory of gravity, which he called general relativity. He argued that acceleration (change in speed) acts on bodies in the same way as the force of gravity. The astronaut cannot determine by his own sensations whether he is being attracted by a large planet, or whether the rocket has begun to slow down.

If the spacecraft accelerates to a speed close to the speed of light, then the clock on it slows down. The faster the ship moves, the slower the clock runs.

Its differences from the Newtonian theory of gravitation are manifested in the study of space objects with a huge mass, such as planets or stars. Experiments have confirmed the curvature of light rays passing near bodies with a large mass. In principle, such a strong gravitational field is possible that light cannot go beyond it. This phenomenon is called " black hole". "Black holes" appear to have been found in some star systems.

Newton argued that the orbits of the planets around the Sun are fixed. Einstein's theory predicts a slow additional rotation of the orbits of the planets associated with the presence of the gravitational field of the Sun. The prediction was confirmed experimentally. It was truly a milestone discovery. Sir Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation was amended.

Beginning of the arms race

Einstein's work gave the key to many of the mysteries of nature. They influenced the development of many branches of physics, from elementary particle physics to astronomy - the science of the structure of the universe.

Einstein in his life was engaged not only in theory. In 1914 he became director of the Institute of Physics in Berlin. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power in Germany, he, as a Jew, had to leave this country. He moved to the USA.

In 1939, despite being opposed to the war, Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt warning him that it was possible to make a bomb with tremendous destructive power and that Nazi Germany had already begun to develop such a bomb. The President gave the order to start work. This marked the beginning of an arms race.

Special relativity (SRT) or private relativity is the theory of Albert Einstein, published in 1905 in the work "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (Albert Einstein - Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper. Annalen der Physik, IV. Folge 17. Seite 891-921 Juni 1905).

It explained the movement between different inertial reference frames or the movement of bodies moving relative to each other at a constant speed. In this case, none of the objects should be taken as a frame of reference, but they should be considered relative to each other. SRT provides only 1 case when 2 bodies do not change the direction of motion and move uniformly.

The laws of special relativity cease to operate when one of the bodies changes the trajectory of movement or increases speed. Here the general theory of relativity (GR) takes place, which gives a general interpretation of the motion of objects.

The two postulates on which the theory of relativity is based are:

1. The principle of relativity- According to him, in all existing reference systems that move relative to each other with a constant speed and do not change direction, the same laws operate.
2. The principle of the speed of light- The speed of light is the same for all observers and does not depend on the speed of their movement. This top speed, and nothing in nature has a greater speed. The speed of light is 3*10^8 m/s.

Albert Einstein took experimental rather than theoretical data as a basis. This was one of the components of his success. The new experimental data served as the basis for the creation of a new theory.

Physicists with mid-nineteenth centuries have been searching for a new mysterious medium called ether. It was assumed that the ether can pass through all objects, but does not participate in their movement. According to beliefs about the ether, by changing the speed of the viewer in relation to the ether, the speed of light also changes.

Einstein, trusting in experiments, rejected the concept of a new ether medium and assumed that the speed of light is always constant and does not depend on any circumstances, such as the speed of the person himself.

Time spans, distances, and their uniformity

The special theory of relativity links time and space. In the Material Universe, there are 3 known in space: right and left, forward and backward, up and down. If we add to them another dimension, called time, then this will form the basis of the space-time continuum.

If you are moving at a slow speed, your observations will not converge with people who are moving faster.

Later experiments confirmed that space, just like time, cannot be perceived in the same way: our perception depends on the speed of the movement of objects.

The connection of energy with mass

Einstein came up with a formula that combined energy with mass. This formula has become widespread in physics, and it is familiar to every student: E=m*s², wherein E-energy; m- body mass, c-speed spread of light.

The mass of a body increases in proportion to the increase in the speed of light. If the speed of light is reached, the mass and energy of the body become dimensionless.

By increasing the mass of an object, it becomes more difficult to achieve an increase in its speed, i.e., for a body with an infinitely huge material mass, infinite energy is needed. But in reality this is impossible to achieve.

Einstein's theory combined two separate positions: the position of mass and the position of energy into one common law. This made it possible to convert energy into material mass and vice versa.