The Principle of Equivalence and the Twin Paradox

Abstract

The canonical twin paradox is explained by making a correct use of the principle of equivalence. The role of the principle of equivalence is to provide a physical agent i.e gravity which can supply the required extra aging to the rocket-bound sibling during its acceleration phase through a gravitational time-offset effect. We follow an approach where a novel variation on the twin paradox is used to connect gravity with the desynchronization in the clocks of two spatially distant, identically accelerated observers. It is shown that this approach removes certain drawbacks of an earlier effort which claims to exploit the equivalence principle in explaining the differential aging in the paradox.

This Year's Nobel Prize (2022) in Physics for Entanglement and Quantum Information: the New Revolution in Quantum Mechanics and Science

“…However, if one grants the latter viewpoint (to the reference frame of the space-traveler), the homebody should be younger 20 There are many papers (e.g. Ben-Ya'acov 2016;Franson 2016;Fung, Clark, Lewis, Wu 2016;de Wolf 2016;Garcia-Escartin, Chamorro-Posada 2015;Gasperini 2014;Lindkvist, Sabín, Fuentes, Dragan, Svensson, Delsing, Johansson 2014;Moreau, Devaux, Lantz 2014;Sokołowski, Golda 2014;2014a;Grøn 2013;Carvalho 2012;Friebe 2012;Ord 2012;Sfarti 2012;Sokołowski 2012;Boblest, Müller, Wunner 2011;Grøn, Braeck 2011;Lichtenegger, Iorio 2011;Székely 2010;Grandou, Rubin 2009;Müller, King, Adis 2008;Roukema, Bajtlik 2008;Abramowicz, Bajtlik, Kluźniak 2007;Boccaletti, Catoni, Catoni 2007;2007a;Grøn 2006;Kohler 2006;McCall 2006;Madarász, Németi, Székely 2006;Ghosal, Nepal, Das 2005;Pesic 2003;Soni 2002;Uzan, Luminet, Lehoucq, Peter 2002;Barrow, Levin 2001;Dolby, Gull 2001;Weeks 2001;Cranor, Heider, Price 2000;Schön 1998;…”