Spacetime Physics: Introduction to Special Relativity, 2nd ed.

Taylor, Edwin F.; Wheeler, John Archibald; Bowen, Jeffrey M.

doi:10.1119/1.17254

Cited by 75 publications

(101 citation statements)

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“…Such inconclusiveness inherit in statistical analysis like ours leads one to consider a covariant formulation of thermodynamics where temperature is generalized to a tensorial quantity whose transformation is no longer an issue [26,30]. In this view thermodynamic temperature is considered as a proper feature of a thermodynamic system, much like mass in relativistic mechanics [31].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical thermodynamics of a two-dimensional relativistic gas

2009

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In this article we study a fully relativistic model of a two dimensional hard-disk gas. This model avoids the general problems associated with relativistic particle collisions and is therefore an ideal system to study relativistic effects in statistical thermodynamics. We study this model using molecular-dynamics simulation, concentrating on the velocity distribution functions. We obtain results for x and y components of velocity in the rest frame (Γ) as well as the moving frame (Γ ′ ). Our results confirm that Jüttner distribution is the correct generalization of Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. We obtain the same "temperature" parameter β for both frames consistent with a recent study of a limited one-dimensional model. We also address the controversial topic of temperature transformation. We show that while local thermal equilibrium holds in the moving frame, relying on statistical methods such as distribution functions or equipartition theorem are ultimately inconclusive in deciding on a correct temperature transformation law (if any).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical thermodynamics of a two-dimensional relativistic gas

2009

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“…The notion of individuals being out-of-date with respect to each other's information is an intuitively natural one, and one finds implicit reflections of it in settings ranging from the study of physical systems to social processes and fictional narratives. The physical world, for example, is governed by principle that we are at least k years outof-date with respect to any point in space k light-years away; the notion of the light cone more generally characterizes the regions of space-time between which information can possibly have flowed [28]. In sociology, the premise that occasional encounters with distant acquaintances can provide important information about new opportunities helps form the basis for Granovetter's celebrated theory of the strength of weak ties [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The structure of information pathways in a social communication network

Kossinets

Kleinberg

Watts

2008

Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining

291

197

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Social networks are of interest to researchers in part because they are thought to mediate the flow of information in communities and organizations. Here we study the temporal dynamics of communication using on-line data, including e-mail communication among the faculty and staff of a large university over a two-year period. We formulate a temporal notion of "distance" in the underlying social network by measuring the minimum time required for information to spread from one node to another -a concept that draws on the notion of vector-clocks from the study of distributed computing systems. We find that such temporal measures provide structural insights that are not apparent from analyses of the pure social network topology. In particular, we define the network backbone to be the subgraph consisting of edges on which information has the potential to flow the quickest. We find that the backbone is a sparse graph with a concentration of both highly embedded edges and long-range bridges -a finding that sheds new light on the relationship between tie strength and connectivity in social networks.

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“…My optimism had increased when in 1992 Taylor and Wheeler in the second edition of the influential and popular "Spacetime Physics" [14] included a "Dialog: Use and Abuse of the Concept of Mass", in which they supported my articles [11,12] Since that time I received hundreds of letters from physicists (both professors and students) stating their adherence to the four-dimensional formulation of relativity and to the Lorentz invariant concept of mass. In a few cases I helped the authors to correct erroneous explanations of the concept of mass in preparing new editions of their textbooks.…”

Section: The Pedagogical Virus Of "Relativistic Mass"mentioning

confidence: 99%