9 research outputs found
Measuring the gravitational field in General Relativity: From deviation equations and the gravitational compass to relativistic clock gradiometry
How does one measure the gravitational field? We give explicit answers to
this fundamental question and show how all components of the curvature tensor,
which represents the gravitational field in Einstein's theory of General
Relativity, can be obtained by means of two different methods. The first method
relies on the measuring the accelerations of a suitably prepared set of test
bodies relative to the observer. The second methods utilizes a set of suitably
prepared clocks. The methods discussed here form the basis of relativistic
(clock) gradiometry and are of direct operational relevance for applications in
geodesy.Comment: To appear in "Relativistic Geodesy: Foundations and Application", D.
Puetzfeld et. al. (eds.), Fundamental Theories of Physics, Springer 2018, 52
pages, in print. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1804.11106,
arXiv:1511.08465, arXiv:1805.1067
Narrative explanation: an alternative to variable-centered explanation?
The nature of narrative explanations is explored as an alternative to the better established variable-centered explanations. Narratives are conceived as di-graphs where the nodes are states of the world and the arcs are actions (causes). Comparative narratives are understood as mappings between di-graphs. Ethnographic and historical explanations, where the number of cases is small and causality complex, may depend upon a narrative depiction