A GENERALIZED EQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE

A Generalized Equivalence Principle

Gauge field theories may quite generally be defined as describing the coupling of a matter-field to an interaction-field, and they are suitably represented in the mathematical framework of fiber bundles. Their underlying principle is the socalled gauge principle, which is based on the idea of deriving the coupling structure of the fields by satisfying a postulate of local gauge covariance. The ...

Generalized Equivalence Principle in Extended New General Relativity

In extended new general relativity, which is formulated as a reduction of Poincaré gauge theory of gravity whose gauge group is the covering group of the Poincaré group, we study the problem of whether the total energy-momentum, total angular momentum and total charge are equal to the corresponding quantities of the gravitational source. We examine this for charged axi-symmetric solutions of gr...

Is the Principle of Equivalence a Principle?

The work argues the principle of equivalence to be a theorem and not a principle (in a sense of an axiom). It contains a detailed analysis of the concepts of normal and inertial frame of reference. The equivalence principle is proved to be valid (at every point and along every path) in any gravitational theory based on linear connections. Possible generalizations of the equivalence principle ar...

The Equivalence Principle

Questioning the Equivalence Principle

The Equivalence Principle (EP) is not one of the “universal” principles of physics (like the Action Principle). It is a heuristic hypothesis which was introduced by Einstein in 1907, and used by him to construct his theory of General Relativity. In modern language, the (Einsteinian) EP consists in assuming that the only long-range field with gravitational-strength couplings to matter is a massl...