This article is cited in 47 papers

FROM THE HISTORY OF PHYSICS

Thomas precession: correct and incorrect solutions

G. B. Malykin

Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: A wealth of different expressions for the frequency of the Thomas precession (TP) can be found in the literature, with the consequence that this issue has been discussed over a long period of time. It is shown that the correct result was obtained in the works of several authors, which were published more than forty years ago but remained unnoticed against the background of numerous erroneous works. Several TP-related physical paradoxes formulated primarily to disprove the special relativity theory are shown to be fallacious. Different techniques for deriving the correct expression are considered and the reasons for the emergence of the main incorrect expressions for the TP frequency are analyzed.

PACS: 01.65.+g, 03.30.+p, 03.65.Vf

Received: August 23, 2005
Revised: May 16, 2006

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0176.200608f.0865

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 2006, 49:8, 837–853

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