Rotation Effects in Relativity

Dear Colleagues,

Rotation and circular motion have always played a peculiar role in the development of scientific thought. While in the context of Aristotelian physics, circular motion was thought of as perfect and incorruptible, and the whole universe was represented as an ensemble of concentric rotating spheres, the peculiarity of rotation was recognized on experimental grounds, and not only as a philosophical speculation, at the beginning of the modern scientific era. In fact, in the framework of Newtonian physics, Foucault's pendulum provided spectacular evidence of the absolute character of rotation. Subsequently, in the context of the theory of relativity, the absolute character of rotation was emphasized by the Sagnac effect, which also stimulated a long and interesting debate on the foundations of relativity. Further peculiarities are shown by the solutions of Einstein's equations for the gravitational field of a rotating source: Lense and Thirring proved a fascinating similarity between the gravitational field of a distribution of mass and the electromagnetic field of a distribution of charge. Just like charge currents produce a magnetic field, mass currents produce a field that, by analogy, is called a gravito-magnetic field; the latter has an important role in the debate on the origin of inertia, according to the general relativistic interpretation of Mach's ideas. Even if it does not appear to be viable due to observational constraints, the Gödel model of a rotating universe is important for the implications on closed time-like curves, causality and the meaning of time. Eventually, rotating solutions are very important in astrophysics and, in particular, in the study of black holes.

Rotation effects in relativity are indeed quite ubiquitous: they are important not only from a theoretical viewpoint, but it is worth mentioning that they have an impact on everyday life, since it is well known that the global positioning system would not have the same accuracy if it neglected the relativistic effects due to the rotation of the Earth. 

This Special Issue will focus on what we know about rotation effects in relativity and, more in general, on relativistic theories of gravity, one hundred years after the birth of Einstein's theory. We encourage contributions that encompass fundamental issues, theoretical problems and experimental proposals, both on a purely classical background and at the interface between classical and quantum physics. As a result, we do expect to provide a useful reference for those who, now and in the future, have an interest in this field.

Dr. Matteo Luca Ruggiero
Guest Editor

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