这篇文章是我的文章的删节在线版本，在伽利略电动力学出现在十一月, 2008. [参考: 伽利略电动力学, 飞行. 19, 别. 6, 十一月/十二月 2008, PP: 103–117] ()


Key words: cognitive neuroscience; 现实; special relativity; light travel time effect; gamma rays bursts; cosmic microwave background radiation.

1. Introduction



Sense modality: Physical cause: Sensed signal: Brain’s model:
Olfactory Chemicals Chemical reactions Smells
Auditory Vibrations Pressure waves Sounds
Visual Unknown Light 空间, 时间

Table I: The brain’s representation of different sensory inputs. Odors are a representation of chemical compositions and concentration our nose senses. 声音是由一个振动物体所产生的空气压力波的映射. 在望, we do not know the physical reality, 我们表示是空间, 并可能时间.



Other consequences of the LTT effects in our perception are remarkably similar to the coordinate transformation of the special relativity theory (SRT). These consequences include an apparent contraction of a receding object along its direction of motion and a time dilation effect. 此外, a receding object can never appear to be going faster than the speed of light, even if its real speed is superluminal. While SRT does not explicitly forbid it, superluminality is understood to lead to time travel and the consequent violations of causality. An 明显的 violation of causality is one of the consequences of LTT, when the superluminal object is approaching the observer. All these LTT effects are remarkably similar to effects predicted by SRT, and are currently taken as ‘confirmation’ that space-time obeys SRT. But instead, space-time may have a deeper structure that, when filtered through LTT effects, results in our 感悟 that space-time obeys SRT.


此外, we will show that this line of thinking leads to natural explanations for two classes of astrophysical phenomena:


2. Similarities between LTT Effects & SRT



SRT seeks a linear coordinate transformation between coordinate systems in motion with respect to each other. We can trace the origin of linearity to a hidden assumption on the nature of space and time built into SRT, as stated by Einstein [6]: “In the first place it is clear that the equations must be linear on account of the properties of homogeneity which we attribute to space and time.” Because of this assumption of linearity, the original derivation of the transformation equations ignores the asymmetry between approaching and receding objects and concentrates on receding objects. Both approaching and receding objects can be described by two coordinate systems that are always receding from each other. 例如, if a system ķ is moving with respect to another system along the positive X axis of , then an object at rest in ķ at a positive x is approaching an observer at the origin of . Unlike SRT, considerations based on LTT effects result in intrinsically different set of transformation laws for objects approaching an observer and those receding from him. More generally, the transformation depends on the angle between the velocity of the object and the observer’s line of sight. Since the transformation equations based on LTT effects treat approaching and receding objects asymmetrically, they provide a natural solution to the twin paradox, 例如.

2.1 First Order Perceptual Effects



2.2 Perception of Speed

We first look at how the perception of motion is modulated by LTT effects. As remarked earlier, the transformation equations of SRT treat only objects receding from the observer. 为此原因, we first consider a receding object, flying away from the observer at a speed \beta of the object depends on the real speed b (as shown in Appendix A.1):


因此，, due to LTT effects, an infinite real velocity gets mapped to an apparent velocity \beta_O=1. 换句话说, no object can appear to travel faster than the speed of light, entirely consistent with SRT.

Physically, this apparent speed limit amounts to a mapping of c\infty. This mapping is most obvious in its consequences. 例如, it takes an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object to an apparent speed \beta_O=1 因为, 在现实中, we are accelerating it to an infinite speed. This infinite energy requirement can also be viewed as the relativistic mass changing with speed, reaching \infty\beta_O=1. Einstein explained this mapping as: “For velocities greater than that of light our deliberations become meaningless; we shall, 然而，, find in what follows, that the velocity of light in our theory plays the part, physically, of an infinitely great velocity.” 因此，, for objects receding from the observer, the effects of LTT are almost identical to the consequences of SRT, in terms of the perception of speed.

2.3 Time Dilation
Time Dilation
Figure 1



for an object receding from the observer (\theta=\pi). This observed time dilation is plotted in Fig. 1, where it is compared to the time dilation predicted in SR. Note that the time dilation due to LTT has a bigger magnitude than the one predicted in SR. 然而, the variation is similar, with both time dilations tending to \infty as the observed speed tends to c.

2.4 Length Contraction





2.5 Doppler Shift

5 Conclusions





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