Epistemic Relativity: An Experimental Approach to Physics

Abstract

The recent concept of relativistic positioning system (RPS) has opened the possibility of making Relativity the general standard frame in which to state any physical problem, theoretical or experimental.Because the velocity of propagation of the information is finite, epistemic relativity proposes to integrate the physicist as a real component of every physical problem, taking into account explicitly what information, when and where, the physicist is able to know. This leads naturally to the concept of relativistic stereometric system (RSS), allowing to measure the intrinsic properties of physical systems. Together, RPSs and RSSs complete the notion of laboratory in general relativity, allowing to perform experiments in finite regions of any space-time.Epistemic relativity incites the development of relativity in new open directions: advanced studies in RPSs and RSSs, intrinsic characterization of gravitational fields, composition laws for them, construction of a finite-differential geometry adapted to RPSs and RSSs, covariant approximation methods, etc. Some of these directions are sketched here, and some open problems are posed. *

Minkowskian Approach to the Pseudorange Navigation Equations

“…In this section, we use the Q-grid representations to obtain further information about other regions where solutions to the null propagation Equation (1) exist without imposing all of the emission/reception conditions (55). We analyse a mixture of emission and reception conditions that apply to other location systems [1,2] based on null coordinates, such as reception or radar coordinates. For an analysis of the notion of a location system (physical realization of a coordinate system), see [9] and previous references quoted herein.…”

“…In the context of global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs), a modern approach is that of relativistic positioning. The foundations of the theory of relativistic positioning systems (RPS) were laid down some time ago: for a genesis and perspectives, please refer to [1][2][3][4] and the references therein.…”