Relativity Principles in Historical and Foundational Perspective

9511796，罗伯特·雷纳西维奇在引入狭义相对论之后，物理学家们越来越重视相对论和对称性原理在理论建设中的作用。这一点在导致爱因斯坦提出广义相对论的考虑因素中相当明确，识别合适的对称群已经成为理论粒子物理学的核心问题。然而，对于一个理论体现或满足相对论原理意味着什么，物理学界长期以来一直存在分歧。一个著名的批评来自埃里希·克雷奇曼，他发表了一篇严厉的评论，从坐标变换下基本方程的不变性的角度对爱因斯坦的描述进行了严厉的评论，并指出爱因斯坦的引力理论，尽管它是一般的协方差，但实际上是一个从它满足不平凡的相对论原理的意义上说的“绝对”理论。自从Kretschmann的批评以来，对于(A)传统上被称为广义相对论的相对论实际上满足什么；(B)如何概括地描述相对论原理的概念；或(C)相对论原理与其他类型的对称原理(如规范对称性和时间反转不变性)之间的关系，仍然没有达成共识。目前的项目旨在做两件事。首先是找出导致物理学家产生相对论原理这一普遍理想的关键历史因素。第二是在如何恰当地勾勒出这一原则方面取得一些系统的进展，特别是依靠Kretschmann和其他人的想法以及在以前的拨款中发展起来的私营部门自己的观点。由此产生的研究应该会引起物理学家、历史学家和科学哲学家的兴趣。

9511796, Robert Rynasiewicz After the introduction of special relativity, physicists have come more and more to place a special emphasis on the role of relativity and symmetry principles in theory construction. Such was quite explicit in the considerations that led Einstein to the general theory of relativity, and the identification of appropriate symmetry groups has become a central concern in theoretical particle physics. There has, however, long been disagreement within the physics community as to what it means for a theory to embody or satisfy a relativity principle. One famous critique came form Erich Kretschmann in which he published a scathing review of Einstein's characterization in terms of the from invariance of the fundamental equations under coordinate transformation and suggested that Einstein's gravitational theory, despite its general covariance, is in fact an "absolute" theory in the sense that it satisfies no non-trivial principle of relativity. Since Kretschmann's critique, there is still no consensus as to (a) what relativity principles in fact are satisfied by what is traditionally called the general theory of relativity; (b) how to characterize in general the concept of a relativity principle; or (c) what the relationship is between relativity principles and other types of symmetry principles such as gauge symmetry and time-reversal invariance. The current project aims to do two things. The first is to identify the crucial historical factors responsible for the emergence among physicists of the general ideal of a relativity principle. The second is to make some systematic progress on how such a principle should be properly sketched out, relying in particular on ideas of Kretschmann and others and also the PI's own views as developed in previous grants. The resulting study should be of interest to physicists, historians and philosophers of science.