V.5 No 2

3

Supplement 1

We have selected the question concerned the SR - GR interrelation: one colleague asked to refer him, where Einstein denied the SR postulates in passing to GR. Although we gave much attention to this point in the items 2 and 4 of our study, it is easy to give direct evidences.

SR is known to be based on three fundamental principles:

1. The principle of full identity of inertial reference frames. “According to this theory, there exists no privileged coordinate system which would give an occasion to introduce the ether conception and, hence, ethereal wind, and for the experiment able to prove its existence. The moving bodies reduction follows here without special hypotheses from both main principles of theory, and this reduction is determined not by the motion itself, which has no sense for us, but by the motion relating to the selected in this case reference body ” [12, p. 557].

2. Postulate of constant speed of light in all reference frames.

3. Postulate of void (immaterial) space out of material bodies. “With it, it will appear senseless to introduce the luminiferous ether, as in the suggested theory we do not introduce ‘the space being absolutely at rest’ endowed with special properties, as well as we do not attribute whichever vector of speed to any point of void space in which electromagnetic processes occur” [13, p. 8].

We would like to repeat the said in the paper: last years the relativists especially often state the third postulate of void space to be unnecessary for SR, but this is incorrect. Let us draw our attention that the main reason to introduce the postulate of void space was Einstein’s striving to escape from the absolute space, and especially from the luminiferous aether with which the classical physicists permanently associated the light propagation. They can do it in the only way - to delete the physical properties of space. And not so much its ability to move - many classical models of aether, Lorentz theory in that number, premised fully stationary aether - as its physical properties that determine the propagation velocity of electromagnetic waves. As is known from Maxwell’s theory, the propagation velocity of EM waves is determined namely by the dielectric and diamagnetic permeability ₀ and ₀ as

With it, as it directly follows from the classical wave theory, this velocity is constant namely in relation to the medium in which we consider the wave process. From this automatically follows the potential possibility to refer some frame to this medium, which is identified by classical physics as the absolute. Just so, to avoid the absolute reference frame, Einstein needed to delete the physical properties from space in which the light propagates. “It is easy to see further that we have to refuse the luminous ether. Actually, if each ray in a void propagated with the speed c in relation with the frame K, then the luminous ether has to be at rest everywhere with respect to K. But if the laws of light propagation in the frame K' (moving in relation to K) were the same as in K, we have to premise with the same right that the ether is at rest also in the frame K'. Since the premise that the ether is at rest in two frames at the same time is absurd and since it would be no less absurd to prefer one of them (or of infinitely large number) of physically equivalent frames, we have to refuse the introduction of the idea of ether which turned into an useless makeweight to the theory as soon as we refused the mechanistic treatment of light” [14, p. 416]. Einstein’s reference to the mechanistic theory of aether is clearly only a fogged admission that the presence of material substance responsible for the light waves propagation fully disproves the basic postulates of SR. Classical wave mechanics long before SR refused the mechanistic model of light waves and moving aether as well. “Apparently, the idea of stationary aether was first expressed by Fresnel in 1818 in his letter to Aragoe, then this idea was considerably developed and supplemented by Lorentz in his work “Theory of electrons” ” [15, p. 15]. But in order to put in some agreement the immaterial space with light propagation, Einstein had to develop additionally the conception of material energetic particles - photons propagating in immaterial space, having essentially distorted the initial idea of quantum of light introduced by Planck. This all occurred before Einstein started working on GR. When he started, he unavoidably had to start refusing the immateriality of space - and he started. We have a direct evidence - contradictive interpretations of space in Einstein’s works. “Apparently, from the view of special theory of relativity the hypothesis of ether is meaningless. Equations of electromagnetic field contain, above electric charges, only field strengths. Electromagnetic phenomena in the void are quite determined by laws which equations contain (?! - Authors), irrespectively of other physical values (?! - Authors). Electromagnetic field is a primordial, non-reduced reality, so it is absolutely excessive to postulate also the homogeneous isotropic ether and to imagine the field as the state of this ether. On the other hand, we can give some important argument in favour of ether hypothesis. To refuse the ether - this finally means to admit that void space has no physical properties. The main facts of mechanics are inconsistent with such view… Mach’s thought finds its full development in the ether of general theory of relativity. According to this theory, the metric properties of space-time continuum in the vicinity of separate space-time points are different and depend on the matter distribution out of the considered region. The idea of physically void space is finally eliminated by such space-time variability of scales and clocks; accordingly, the admittance of fact that ‘void space’ physically is not homogeneous and isotropic makes us to be writing its state with the help of ten functions - gravity potentials g . But in this way, the idea of ether gets again a definite content, which absolutely differs from the content of the idea of ether of mechanical theory of light. The ether of general theory of relativity is the medium (! - Authors) as such with the lack of all mechanical and kinematic properties, but at the same time determining the mechanical (and electromagnetic) processes… Summing up, we can say, general theory of relativity provides the space with the physical properties; thus, in this sense the ether exists. According to general theory of relativity, the space is unthinkable without ether; really, in such space not only the light propagation would be impossible (i.e., the electromagnetic processes that are primordial and do not require, by Einstein’s thought, whatever additional medium - Authors) but the scales and clocks (the basis of GR - Authors) would be impossible and there would be no space-time distances (also the basis of GR - Authors) in the physical meaning of this word” [16, p. 686- 689].