Overview
- Marks the centenary of the introduction of the term spacetime into the scientific lexicon by bringing together the thoughts on Hermann Minkowski's work by a selection of the world's leading physicists and philosophers of science
Part of the book series: Fundamental Theories of Physics (FTPH, volume 165)
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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The Impact of Minkowski Spacetime on the Twentieth Century Physics from a Historical Perspective
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Front Matter
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Implications of Minkowski Spacetime for Theoretical Physics
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Front Matter
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Conceptual and Philosophical Issues of Minkowski Spacetime
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
This volume is dedicated to the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hermann Minkowski's paper "Space and Time" in 1909. His work on the spacetime representation of special relativity had a huge impact on the twentieth century physics to the extent that modern physics would be impossible without the notion of spacetime. While there is consensus on the mathematical significance of spacetime in theoretical physics, for a hundred years there has been no consensus on the nature of spacetime itself. We owe Minkowski a clear answer to the question of the nature of spacetime -- whether it is only a mathematical space or represents a real four-dimensional world. A century after its publication the original Minkowski paper still represents an enrichment to the physicists, especially the relativists, who read it with the intent to fully investigate the depth of Minkowski's ideas on space and time and the physical meaning of special relativity.
The volume begins with an excellent retranslation of Minkowski's paper by Dennis Lehmkuhl, accompanied by the original German version of the article. The fourteen contributions are divided into three parts entitled "The Impact of Minkowski Spacetime on the Twentieth Century Physics from a Historical Perspective", "Implications of Minkowski Spacetime for Theoretical Physics", and "Conceptual and Philosophical Issues of Minkowski Spacetime."
Reviews
From the reviews:
“This book celebrates the 100th anniversary of Minkowski’s work on four-dimensional spacetime … . In this work Minkowski introduces spacetime as a new fundamental concept from which space and time can be derived. … All in all this is a very impressive work, not only because of the groundbreaking new ideas and the great impact it has had. It is also nicely written and the language is a very pleasant contrast to the dry style most publications use nowadays.” (Michael Keyl, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1220, 2011)
“Vesselin Petkov, the editor of the volume, has succeeded in assembling a number of interesting, enlightening, and thought-provoking papers, all of them authored by competent experts in their fields, which illuminate various aspects of the concept of Minkowski spacetime. The collection transcends the disciplinary boundaries of theoretical physics, history of science, and philosophical reflection in a most productive way.” (Tilman Sauer, Metascience, February, 2013)
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Minkowski Spacetime: A Hundred Years Later
Editors: Vesselin Petkov
Series Title: Fundamental Theories of Physics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3475-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-481-3474-8Published: 29 March 2010
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-3184-4Published: 05 May 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-90-481-3475-5Published: 11 March 2010
Series ISSN: 0168-1222
Series E-ISSN: 2365-6425
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XLII, 326
Topics: History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics, Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory, Quantum Physics, Philosophy of Science