Friday, May 17, 2019

special relativity - How to find the direction of velocity of a reference frame where two events are simultaneous in case of a space-like interval


Suppose in a inertial reference frame $S$, an event $A$ occurs at $(ct_A, x_A, y_A, z_A)$ and event $B$ occurs at $(ct_B, x_B, y_B, z_B)$.


Now the invariant interval of these two events is,



$$I = -c^2 (t_A - t_B)^2 + (x_A - x_B)^2 + (y_A - y_B)^2 + (z_A - z_B)^2 = -c^2 \Delta t^2 + \Delta \bar x^2,$$


where I'm using the $(-, +, +, +)$ metric.


Now there can be $3$ particular cases of interest corresponding to time-like, space-like and light-like events.


For $I = 0 \implies c^2 \Delta t^2 = \Delta \bar x^2$, events are light-like.


For $I < 0 \implies c^2 \Delta t^2 > \Delta \bar x ^2$, events are time-like and a reference-frame $\bar S$ exists(accessible by appropriate Lorentz Transformation) for which these two events occur at the same location. The velocity(magnitude and direction) can be computed.


For $I > 0 \implies c^2 \Delta t^2 < \Delta \bar x^2$, events are space-like and a a reference frame $\bar S$ exists(again accessible by appropriate Lorentz Transformation) for which these two events are simultaneous.


I know how to calculate the velocity(direction and magnitude) of the $\bar S$ frame relative to the $S$ frame in case of a time-like event. I also know how to calculate the magnitude of velocity of the $\bar S$ frame relative to the $S$ frame for a space-like event.



How to find the direction of the $\bar S$ frame relative to $S$ for a space-like event?






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