Chao-Guang Huang


Uniformly Accelerated Reference Frames and Equivalence Principle
Chao-Guang Huang, Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS 
In addition to the well-known Møller frame (or Rindler frame), we may construct another frame to describe the uniformly accelerated system. In the new frame, all `static' (i.e. spatial coordinates keep unchanged) observers have the same proper acceleration but each has his own horizon. In contrast, the proper acceleration of a static observer in Mølller frame (or Rindler frame) depends on his position, but the horizon is (static-)observer-independent. We argue that the new uniformly accelerated frame is more suitable than Mølller frame to describe the system in an accelerated rocket. It is possible to distinguish the Mølller frame and the new uniformly accelerated frame by high-precision experiments (such as arrival-time- and/or redshift-measurements) in an accelerated rocket. When the non-relativistic limit is taken, the second law of mechanics and Schödinger equation in the new uniformly accelerated frame are all different from those in Mølller frame. The thermal properties of the new frame and of Mølller frame are also different. The effects on the equivalence principle is discussed. We argue that even the spacetime curvature is ignored, it is still possible in some sense to distinguish gravity from acceleration.