From Relativity to Nature of Space

This record contains the final version of the manuscript: From Relativistic Framework to the Structure of Space Abstract:Several postulate-based formulations of special relativity are proven to be mutually equivalent. Although the equivalence proofs involve relations between inertial frames, the resulting formulations show that the essential relativistic structure can be recovered from the description of phenomena within a single inertial reference frame. The analysis is then extended by comparing moving objects described within a single frame in the Newtonian and relativistic frameworks. The difference between these descriptions motivates the conclusion that, in the relativistic framework, the evolution of phenomena can be described in terms of the present state of space together with local laws of change. This leads to an interpretation in which space is treated as the physical entity whose local state and laws of change underlie observable phenomena. Consequences of this interpretation are discussed in relation to the twin paradox, gravitational waves, and the connection between mass and internal change.