The equivalence principle

A. A. Logunov ; M. A. Mestvirishvili ; Yu. V. Chugreev

Teoretičeskaâ i matematičeskaâ fizika, Tome 99 (1994) no. 1, pp. 121-140

Résumé

By an example of the movement of an accelerated charge it is demonstrated that the inertial reference system containing the homogeneous static gravitational field of the strength $\mathbf{g}$ is not physically equivalent to a constantly accelerated reference system moving with the acceleration $-\mathbf{g}$ related to the inertial system. Hence the Equivalence Principle in its standard formulation it not fulfilled. The widely spread view that just this Principle underlies the General Theory of Relativity is not quite correct. The basis of Einstein theory of gravity is another Equivalence Principle, having different and more deep content that metric field $g_{\mu\nu}$ of Riemannian space is proclaimed as the gravitational field. Just this is “the natural formulation of the Equivalence Principle” that Einstein had come to later.