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The Minkowski metric in non-inertial observer radar coordinates
We give a closed expression for the Minkowski (1+1)-dimensional metric in the
radar coordinates of an arbitrary non-inertial observer O in terms of O's
proper acceleration. Knowledge of the metric allows the non-inertial observer
to perform experiments in spacetime without making reference to inertial
frames. To clarify the relation between inertial and non-inertial observers the
coordinate transformation between radar and inertial coordinates, also is
given. We show that every conformally flat coordinate system can be regarded as
the radar coordinate system of a suitable observer for a suitable
parametrization of the observer worldline. Therefore, the coordinate
transformation between arbitrarily moving observers is a conformal
transformation and conformally invariant (1+1)-dimensional theories lead to the
same physics for all observers, independently of their relative motion.Comment: Revtex4, 6 pages, 1 figur