Under the Lorentz transformations, quantities are classed as four-vectors, Lorentz scalars etc depen

Essence Byrd

Essence Byrd

Answered question

2022-05-01

Under the Lorentz transformations, quantities are classed as four-vectors, Lorentz scalars etc depending upon how their measurement in one coordinate system transforms as a measurement in another coordinate system.
The proper length and proper time measured in one coordinate system will be a calculated, but not measured, invariant for all other coordinate systems.
So what kind of invariants are proper time and proper length?

Answer & Explanation

haillarip0c9

haillarip0c9

Beginner2022-05-02Added 23 answers

Doesn't matter whether a quantity is measured or calculated. In some sense, you may say that the proper time or proper length are measured in the other frames, too. Calculation is sometimes a necessary part of the measurement.
Because the values aren't affected by the transformations, proper lengths and proper times are formally scalars, much like the rest mass which is the proper length of the energy-momentum vector, if you wish.
However, we usually don't use the word "scalar" for such quantities because they're just some "somewhat unnatural" functions of vectors. For example, the proper length is d x μ d x μ assuming that d x μ (and the convention for the metric) is spacelike. So fundamentally, the proper length is some information about a vector.
Because the proper length is just some "partial information" about a vector, you can't build a "field theory" out of proper lengths themselves. In relativistic field theory, we talk about "scalar fields" and "vector fields" and other "tensor fields", aside from "spinor fields" etc. However, a fundamental theory could have no elementary field associated with the "proper length" even if such constructions made sense: it would have the whole "vector field" while the length of this vector would be a "derived quantity".

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