Relativistic Rotation in the Large Radius, Small Angular Velocity Limit

Abstract

Relativistic rotation is considered in the limit of angular velocity approaching zero and radial distance approaching infinity, such that centrifugal acceleration is immeasurably small while tangent velocity remains close to the speed of light. For this case, the predictions of the traditional approach to relativistic rotation using local co-moving Lorentz frames are compared and contrasted with those of the differential geometry based non-time-orthogonal analysis approach. Different predictions by the two approaches imply that only the non-time-orthogonal approach is valid.