A Family of Inertial Observers
The frame field
represents the local Lorentz frame defined by a family of nonspinning inertial observers. That is,
which means that the integral curves of the timelike unit vector field are timelike geodesics, and also
which means that the spacelike unit vector fields are nonspinning. (They are Fermi-Walker transported.) Here, is a timelike unit vector field, while are spacelike unit vector fields.
Nonspinning inertial frames are as close as we can come in curved spacetimes to the usual Lorentz frames known from special relativity, where Lorentz transformations are simply changes from one Lorentz frame to another.
Read more about this topic: Monochromatic Electromagnetic Plane Wave
Famous quotes containing the words family and/or observers:
“No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and independence which are the capital in this profession. It comes only by the grace of God. It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker. You must be born into the family of the Walkers. Ambulator nascitur, non fit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“An ... important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)