space-time

space-time, in physical science, single concept that recognizes the union of space and time, first proposed by the mathematician Hermann Minkowski in 1908 as a way to reformulate Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity (1905).

(Read Einstein’s 1926 Britannica essay on space-time.)

Common intuition previously supposed no connection between space and time. Physical space was held to be a flat, three-dimensional continuum—i.e., an arrangement of all possible point locations—to which Euclidean postulates would apply. To such a spatial manifold, Cartesian coordinates seemed most naturally adapted, and straight lines could be conveniently accommodated. Time was viewed independent of space—as a separate, one-dimensional continuum, completely homogeneous along its infinite extent. Any “now” in time could be regarded as an origin from which to take duration past or future to any other time instant. Uniformly moving spatial coordinate systems attached to uniform time continua represented all unaccelerated motions, the special class of so-called inertial reference frames. The universe according to this convention was called Newtonian. In a Newtonian universe, the laws of physics would be the same in all inertial frames, so that one could not single out one as representing an absolute state of rest.

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In the Minkowski universe, the time coordinate of one coordinate system depends on both the time and space coordinates of another relatively moving system according to a rule that forms the essential alteration required for Einstein’s special theory of relativity; according to Einstein’s theory there is no such thing as “simultaneity” at two different points of space, hence no absolute time as in the Newtonian universe. The Minkowski universe, like its predecessor, contains a distinct class of inertial reference frames, but now spatial dimensions, mass, and velocities are all relative to the inertial frame of the observer, following specific laws first formulated by H.A. Lorentz, and later forming the central rules of Einstein’s theory and its Minkowski interpretation. Only the speed of light is the same in all inertial frames. Every set of coordinates, or particular space-time event, in such a universe is described as a “here-now” or a world point. In every inertial reference frame, all physical laws remain unchanged.

Einstein’s general theory of relativity (1916) again makes use of a four-dimensional space-time, but incorporates gravitational effects. Gravity is no longer thought of as a force, as in the Newtonian system, but as a cause of a “warping” of space-time, an effect described explicitly by a set of equations formulated by Einstein. The result is a “curved” space-time, as opposed to the “flat” Minkowski space-time, where trajectories of particles are straight lines in an inertial coordinate system. In Einstein’s curved space-time, a direct extension of Riemann’s notion of curved space (1854), a particle follows a world line, or geodesic, somewhat analogous to the way a billiard ball on a warped surface would follow a path determined by the warping or curving of the surface. One of the basic tenets of general relativity is that inside a container following a geodesic of space-time, such as an elevator in free-fall, or a satellite orbiting the Earth, the effect would be the same as a total absence of gravity. The paths of light rays are also geodesics of space-time, of a special sort, called “null geodesics.” The speed of light again has the same constant velocity c.

In both Newton’s and Einstein’s theories, the route from gravitational masses to the paths of particles is rather roundabout. In the Newtonian formulation, the masses determine the total gravitational force at any point, which by Newton’s third law determines the acceleration of the particle. The actual path, as in the orbit of a planet, is found by solving a differential equation. In general relativity, one must solve Einstein’s equations for a given situation to determine the corresponding structure of space-time, and then solve a second set of equations to find the path of a particle. However, by invoking the general principle of equivalence between the effects of gravity and of uniform acceleration, Einstein was able to deduce certain effects, such as the deflection of light when passing a massive object, such as a star.

The first exact solution of Einstein’s equations, for a single spherical mass, was carried out by a German astronomer, Karl Schwarzschild (1916). For so-called small masses, the solution does not differ too much from that afforded by Newton’s gravitational law, but enough to account for the previously unexplained size of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury. For “large” masses the Schwarzschild solution predicts unusual properties. Astronomical observations of dwarf stars eventually led the American physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and H. Snyder (1939) to postulate super-dense states of matter. These, and other hypothetical conditions of gravitational collapse, were borne out in later discoveries of pulsars, neutron stars, and black holes.

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A subsequent paper of Einstein (1917) applies the theory of general relativity to cosmology, and in fact represents the birth of modern cosmology. In it, Einstein looks for models of the entire universe that satisfy his equations under suitable assumptions about the large-scale structure of the universe, such as its “homogeneity,” meaning that space-time looks the same in any part as any other part (the “cosmological principle”). Under those assumptions, the solutions seemed to imply that space-time was either expanding or contracting, and in order to construct a universe that did neither, Einstein added an extra term to his equations, the so-called “cosmological constant.” When observational evidence later revealed that the universe did in fact seem to be expanding, Einstein withdrew that suggestion. However, closer analysis of the expansion of the universe during the late 1990s once more led astronomers to believe that a cosmological constant should indeed be included in Einstein’s equations.