The twin paradox and space topology

DOI10.1088/0143-0807/23/3/306MaRDI QIDQ3147342zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Jean-Pierre Luminet, Roland Lehoucq, Patrick Peter, Jean-Philippe Uzan

Publication date 13 February 2003

Published in European Journal of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0006039

zbMATH Keywords

twin paradoxspace topology

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Special relativity (83A05)

Abstract: If space is compact, then a traveller twin can leave Earth, travel back home without changing direction and find her sedentary twin older than herself. We show that the asymmetry between their spacetime trajectories lies in a topological invariant of their spatial geodesics, namely the homotopy class. This illustrates how the spacetime symmetry invariance group, although valid {it locally}, is broken down {it globally} as soon as some points of space are identified. As a consequence, any non--trivial space topology defines preferred inertial frames along which the proper time is longer than along any other one.

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Cited in

(11)

• A note on the topology of space–time in special relativity
• Radiative properties of an inertial multilevel atom in a compactified Minkowski spacetime
• 3D/4D equivalence, the twins paradox and absolute time
• A geometrical characterization of the twin paradox and its variants
• Space-time trigonometry and formalization of the ``twin paradox for uniform and accelerated motions
• Galileo's Ship and Spacetime Symmetry
• Symmetric twin paradox for free-falling frames: argument against the relativistic time dilation?
• Formalization of the ``twin paradox for non-uniformly accelerated motions
• Topological aggregation, the twin paradox and the No Show paradox
• Non-relativistic regime and topology: topological term in the Einstein equation
• Inquiring the Unruh-DeWitt detector about the global property of spacetime

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