Scale relativity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Scale relativity is a theory of physics initially developed by Laurent Nottale, working at the french observatory of Meudon, near Paris, which extends special and general relativity with a new formulation of scale invariance preserving a reference length, postulated to be the Planck length, which becomes invariant under zoom. This requires abandoning the hypothesis of differentiability for space-time, instead suggesting that space-time has a fractal structure. The quantum/classical transition is replaced with a fractal/non-fractal transition, specifically a divergence in the length of quantum paths at short scale.


Contents

  • 1 Scale Relativity principle
  • 2 Predictions and retrodictions
  • 3 See also
  • 4 Links

[edit] Scale Relativity principle

The scale relativity extends to scales the reasoning made by Einstein on speeds in special relativity: just like a constant speed c= \frac {1} {\sqrt{\varepsilon_0\mu_0}} in Maxwell's equations, which does not appear to depend on the speed of the observer, suggests that the law of combination of speeds must preserve this invariant, similalry, the appearance of a constant length \ell_P = \sqrt { \frac {\hbar G} {c^3} } in Schrödinger's equation suggests that the law of combination of scales must preserve this invariant. In other words, just like c is a physical speed limit, \ell_P is a physical length limit.

[edit] Predictions and retrodictions

Scale relativity made a number of true predictions, as well as a number of retrodictions, both in cosmology and at small scale, including: