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arXiv · 2206.10768

The Local Validity of Special Relativity, Part 1: Geometry

Samuel C. Fletcher·James Owen Weatherall
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Abstract

In this two-part essay, we distinguish several senses in which general relativity has been regarded as "locally special relativistic". Here, in Part 1, we focus on senses in which a relativistic spacetime has been said to be "locally (approximately) Minkowskian". After critiquing several proposals in the literature, we present a result capturing a substantive sense in which every relativistic spacetime is locally approximately Minkowskian. We then show that Minkowski spacetime is not distinguished in this result: every relativistic spacetime is locally approximately every other spacetime in the same sense. In Part 2, we will consider "locally specially relativistic" matter theories.

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Samuel C. Fletcher, James Owen Weatherall. 2022-06-21. The Local Validity of Special Relativity, Part 1: Geometry. https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.10768

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