Radiation from Bodies with Extreme Acceleration II: Kinematics

TL;DR

This paper explores how extreme acceleration affects electromagnetic radiation, showing that inertially expanding frames enable measurement of such radiation and reveal phenomena inaccessible to static inertial frames.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework using inertially expanding clocks to measure radiation from highly accelerated sources, highlighting qualitative differences from static frames.

Findings

Inertially expanding frames allow measurement of radiation from extreme accelerations.

Radiative power exceeds classical Larmor predictions under extreme acceleration.

Inertially expanding clocks provide access to phenomena not observable in static inertial frames.

Abstract

When applied to a dipole source subjected to acceleration which is violent and long lasting (``extreme acceleration''), Maxwell's equations predict radiative power which augments Larmor's classical radiation formula by a nontrivial amount. The physical assumptions behind this result are made possible by the kinematics of a system of geometrical clocks whose tickings are controlled by cavities which are expanding inertially. For the purpose of measuring the radiation from such a source we take advantage of the physical validity of a spacetime coordinate framework (``inertially expanding frame'') based on such clocks. They are compatible and commensurable with the accelerated clocks of the accelerated source. By contrast, a common Lorentz frame with its mutually static clocks won't do: it lacks that commensurability. Inertially expanding clocks give a physicist a window into the frame of a source with extreme acceleration. He thus can locate that source and measure radiation from it without being subjected to such acceleration himself. The conclusion is that inertially expanding reference frames reveal qualitatively distinct aspects of nature which would not be accessible if static inertial frames were the only admissible frames.