对广义相对论思想渊源的一种解读

One Interpretation of the Origin of General Relativity Thinking

1.爱因斯坦坚信物理世界的和谐秩序原则,坚信"自然定律的普遍有效性,应当不随坐标系变换而变"。对于惯性系是那样,推广到非惯性系也应当是那样。在进行推广时,架构的桥梁是等效原理和广义协变性原理。2.在分析广义相对论的创立过程中,新物理思想与新数学工具之间是能动地相互发生作用的。特别是一旦认识到在弯曲时空中必须采用"柔性标尺",也就借助于黎曼几何与张量分析工具取得了关键性的突破。3.马赫对绝对时空观的大胆怀疑和有力批判,给予爱因斯坦无穷的启发性力量。通过对"马赫原理"的重新解读,还可以看出"马赫原理"对寻找广义相对论的引力场方程的启发性作用。4.从新的角度讨论了广义相对论时空观,指出引力场的时空相对性之中仍包含着某种绝对性。探讨了爱因斯坦与马赫的相对性纲领的微妙差异,分析了物理上广义相对性与数学上广义协变性的区别与联系。

1. Einstein believed that the physical world has its principles of harmonious order, and universal validity of natural laws would not change as the reference frame changes＂, natural laws stay the same when they are generalized from inertial frame to non-inertial frame. The bridge of gener- alizing is the principle of equivalence and the principle of general covariance. 2. This paper analyzes the establishment of general relativity. It is found that there is initiative interaction between new physical ideas and new mathematical tools. Especially, when ＂flexible ruler＂ is recognized as necessary in curved space-time, key breakthrough was realized by the tools of Rie- mannian geometry and tensor analysis. 3. Mach＇s bold questions and strong criticism on absolute space and time had enlightened Ein- stein a lot. When we consider Mach ＇s principle again, we still can see its inspiring impact on the foundation of gravitational field equations of general relativity. 4. This paper discusses the space-time concept of general relativity from a new perspective, and points out that the relativity of space-time in gravitational field indeed contains some kind of absoluteness. Besides, it discusses the subtle differences between Einstein＇ s relativity program and Mach＇ s, and analyzes the difference and correlation between general relativity of physics and general covariance of mathematics.