LETTERE AL NUOVO CI:MEN1'0

VOL.

44,

N.

16 Dicembre 1985

Ahout the Slowing-Down of Accelera.ted Clocks.

R. S.

ANTOLA

and J.

A. FEI~RARI

Departamento de Fisica, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias

T. Narvaja 1674, JJiontevideo, Uruguay

(ricevuto il 18 Luglio 1985)

P ACS. 04.20. - General relativity.

Thc purpose of this letter is to discuss a de:fi.nite problem related to the kinematic
equation

J(1i

( 1)

-e=

v 2fc 2 )idt.

It is oftcn takcn as a postulate that it also givcs us time as measured by an accelerated

obscrvcr (1 ). It is a wcll-known fact that an incrtial obscrver can describe thc bchaviour
of any objcct, moving with variable vclocity in any possiblc way, and also of nonincrtial
obscrvcrs: only thc vice-versa is for biddcn in spccial relativity. This pro blem is rathcr
subtlc and will rcpay carcful cxamination. In Schwart-z's words, << Therc is in it very littlc
of the self-evidcnt, and thc po:::sibility cannot in fact be ruled out that it is only approximatc involving a limitation of thc permissiblc accelerations ... . A decper understanding of thc qucstion can be had in the context of the general theory of relativity >> ( 2 ).
Howevcr, whcn a physicist thinks of a transformation equation relating time as
measurcd by an acccleratcd obscrver with time as measured by an inertial observer,
he thinks of an cquation likc this
f(-c, t, v, dvfdt, ... )

(2)

= O.

H. M. ScuWAR'l'Z: Introduction to Speical Rclativity (MoGraw-Hill, New York, N. Y., 1968),

p. 63.

(') Einstcin's thcory of gravitation allows us to deduce oq. (1) from thc cquivalonco principie, if
it is possiblo to uso a Ncwtonin.n approximation. Evon thls dcduction can bo objcct<:d, bccauso
Einstcin's thcory is rwt complctcly compatible with tho cquivalcnco principio. Seo V. FocK: The
Thcor ot SJ)(J-Cc, 1'imc antl Gra1:ilation (Pcrgamon Prcss, London, 19GG), p. 234; J. A. FERH.ARI:
.Ann. phys. (Lci1JZ[J), 41, 430 (1985). Seo also ll. C. '.roLMAN: Rclativit, Thennodnamics and
Cosmoloay (Clarcndon Press, Oxford, 193-1), p. 194.

600

and

R. S. ANTOLA

J. A. FERRAIU

In this .equation, to each value 1:' of the << proper >> temporal co-ordinate it is at:signcd. _;.::
a value t (measurcd b;y thc incrtial observer), and viceversa. Which is really the case in
connection with eq. (1), since for a function cp with dg;fdt= (1- v 2fc2)l >O, the inverse function theorem can be applied.
The probicm wc want to stress herc is that, it secms strangc that cq. (1) docs not
allow us to assign a value of t to an arbitrary value of 1:', if thc integral shown in (1) is
convcrgcnt when t -+ + oo (3).
In this case, if
+co

1:'

> J(~- 'V 2 jc2)i dt,

a

does not correspond to a value of t: part of the cvol1ttion of the accelerated observcr should
happen out of thc universe of the inertial observcr. In certain situations an accelerated
observer should << scc >> the vanishing of an inertial observer moving in a bounded region.
In ordcr to solve this paradoxical situation, it is possiblc to adopt two poiuts of vicw:
-r

a) cq. (1) is only a good approximation to thc true transformation equation,

under ccrtain restrictions in velocity and accclcration;

b) eq. (1) is truc, but we can only find in nature fields of force (relativo to tho
inortial obsorver) such that the integral which appears in inequality (3) si divcrgent.

If wc adopt thc point of view b), we must dcmand that tho integral
+co

J(l- v fc
2

+co
2

)ldt =

J(l + Gfc
2

)-tdt

is divergent (here G(t) is momentum per unit of proper mass).

From this relation it follows that the only fields that we can find in N ature are those
for which

J&j [.F(!) dt is divergcnt.

(For simplicity, wc llave considered only the one-dimensional problcm, -with

== dGfdt.)

1!

From this sccond condition, it follows that certain forces increasing with time are
physically admissible (for example, J!(t) = Ln t).
Othcr incrcasing forces are not physically admissible (for example, J!(t) = t 11 with
p

> 0), becausc they make the integral

Jas j
a

[F(t)dt convergent.
a

In the samc way, using the rclativistic energy conservation law, wc can establish
conditions about a stationary spatial iicld of force F(x) acting over the accelerated observer.
I t is deduced that the only physically admissible fields are those such that the

integral+Ja~ j jF(x) dx
.

is divergent (for example F(x) = Lnx) (4 ).

)
It is un importnnt fact thnt in nll branchcs of physics (perhaps with thc only e:x:ception o
Cosmology) tho temporal co-ordinu.te t gocs from -- oo to + oo :' that is in physics time it e has not cnd ~.
(

:t

(')

If li'(x) lias a singularity in x = x 0 such that

shown that both

aud t romu.in boundod.

JF(~)d~
a

to

oo

whcn x tcuds to x., it cnn bo