Rafelski J. Relativity Matters: From Einstein's EMC2 to Laser Particle Acceleration and Quark-Gluon Plasma

Springer International Publishing AG, 2017. — 478 p. — ISBN: 9783319512303This book presents Special Relativity (SR) in language accessible to students while avoiding the burden of geometry, tensor calculus, and space-time symmetries, yet advancing in highly contemporary context all the way to research frontiers. I further take into consideration the way Einstein saw SR after 1915 as a part of the more general scientific context, with the newly formulated General Relativity (GR) influencing the way SR was understood. This is complemented by the current cosmological perspective and connected to present day research topics. SR is presented such that nothing remains a paradox or just apparent, but rather everything is explained.Space-Time, Light and the Ether
Space-Time
The Michelson-Morley Experiment
Material Bodies in Special Relativity
Time Dilation, and Lorentz-Fitzgerald Body Contraction
Time Dilation
The Lorentz-FitzGerald Body Contraction
The Lorentz Transformation
Relativistic Coordinate Transformation
Properties of the Lorentz Coordinate Transformation
Measurement
Body Properties and Lorentz Coordinate Transformations
Different Methods of Measuring Spatial Separation
The Bell Rockets
Time
The Light-Cone
Causality, Twins
SR-Doppler Shift
Mass, Energy, Momentum
Mass and Energy
Particle Momentum
Generalized Mass-Energy Equivalence
Tests of Special Relativity
Collisions, Decays
A Preferred Frame of Reference
Particle Reactions
4-Vectors and 4-Force
4-Vectors in Minkowski Space
4-Velocity and 4-Momentum
Acceleration and Relativistic Mechanics
Motion of Charged Particles
The Lorentz Force
Electrons Riding a PlaneWave
Covariant Force and Field
Covariant Formulation of EM-Force
Covariant Fields and Invariants
Dynamics of Fields and Particles
Variational Principle for EM-Fields
EM-Field Inertia
Afterword: Acceleration