Research – Colin MacLaurin

My research area is general relativity. These papers are drafts not yet ready for arXiv, but exhibit my work prior to Europe conferences.  — Colin MacLaurin

  • 2017, “Distance in Schwarzschild spacetime” (edit: removed until ready for arXiv). Observers with “energy per mass” e measure a radial distance |e|^{-1}dr. I overview four different tools to measure spatial distance — spatial projector, tetrads, adapted coordinates, and radar — which are locally equivalent. Though spatial distance is foundational, it remains underdeveloped. I clarify subtleties, and counteract the Newton-esque over-reliance on the static distance (1-2M/r)^{-1/2}dr.
  • 2017, “Cosmic cable” (draft). A cosmic-length cable could be used to mine energy from the expansion of the universe. Beyond sci-fi, this is instructive for relativity pedagogy. The dynamics include motion-dependent distance, and time-dilation which reduces the force, effects which are missed in most existing treatments.