Fantastic Beasts and where (not) to find them: Local gravitational energy and energy conservation in general relativity
| Autor: | Patrick M. Duerr |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Physics::General Physics History Inertial frame of reference General relativity Lorentz transformation Spacetime symmetries General Physics and Astronomy Cosmological constant Gravitational energy Gravitation General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology symbols.namesake Theoretical physics History and Philosophy of Science symbols Stress–energy tensor |
| Zdroj: | Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. 65:1-14 |
| ISSN: | 1355-2198 |
| Popis: | This paper critically examines energy-momentum conservation and local (differential) notions of gravitational energy in General Relativity (GR). On the one hand, I argue that energy-momentum of matter is indeed locally (differentially) conserved: Physical matter energy-momentum 4-currents possess no genuine sinks/sources. On the other hand, global (integral) energy-momentum conservation is contingent on spacetime symmetries. Local gravitational energy-momentum is found to be a supererogatory notion. Various explicit proposals for local gravitational energy-momentum are investigated and found wanting. Besides pseudotensors, the proposals considered include those of Lorentz and Levi-Civita, Pitts and Baker. It is concluded that the ontological commitment we ought to have towards gravitational energy in GR mimics the natural anti-realism/eliminativism towards apparent forces in Newtonian Mechanics. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full Text from ScienceDirect