11. Limits of the Theory of Special Relativity

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  • It was already demonstrated at lengths that an impressive number of examples exist, which are conforming to the Theory of Special Relativity. This was shown e.g. for kinematic considerations of moving observers, further it was proved for the processes during clock transport and also for the relations between mass, momentum, force, energy and for elastic or non-elastic collisions of moved bodies and further the relativistic observation of rocket acceleration. It was shown for a large number of configurations that using the Lorentz-Transformation no differences can be found for a system at rest or for moving observers and that no possibility exists to decide inside a system whether it is moving or at rest. This is in accordance with the postulates of the Theory of Special Relativity which stipulates that all observers are considered as equal and so no evidence could be found that the principles of relativity are not valid.

    All these examples share the basis that the transport of signals is occurring with the speed of light. However, when superluminal velocities are considered, which were discovered during tunneling processes, it can be shown that – provided that also information are transported with superluminal speed (a concept which is still controversially discussed) − the appearing effects are not in accordance with Special Relativity. This will be reviewed in detail. Finally, the situation concerning synchronization after acceleration will be discussed and it will be shown that in this case conflicts will appear.