Logical Axiomatizations of Space-Time. Samples from the Literature

Abstract

We study relativity theory as a theory in the sense of mathematical logic. We use first-order logic (FOL) as a framework to do so. We aim at an “analysis of the logical structure of relativity theories”. First we build up (the kinematics of) special relativity in FOL, then analyze it, and then we experiment with generalizations in the direction of general relativity. The present paper gives samples from an ongoing broader research project which in turn is part of a research direction going back to Reichenbach and others in the 1920’s. We also try to give some perspective on the literature related in a broader sense. In the perspective of the present work, axiomatization is not a final goal. Axiomatization is only a first step, a tool. The goal is something like a conceptual analysis of relativity in the framework of logic.

In section 1 we recall a complete FOL-axiomatization Specrel of special relativity from [5, 32]. In section 2 we answer questions from papers by Ax and Mundy concerning the logical status of faster than light motion (FTL) in relativity. We claim that already very small/weak fragments of Specrel prove “No FTL”. In section 3 we give a sketchy outlook for the possibility of generalizing Specrel to theories permitting accelerated observers (gravity). In section 4 we continue generalizing Specrel in the direction of general relativity by localizing it, i.e. by replacing it with a version still in first-order logic but now local (in the sense of general relativity theory). In section 5 we give samples from the broader literature.