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Equation 23 · Part 1 · The Atlas That Refuses to Close

Symbol u

(u,Σ)(u,\Sigma)
uu

What this part means

u is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

Its job in the formula

u is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

The passage around this formula

Xμ(u,Σ)X^\mu(u,\Sigma) is this article’s first chart. It takes two pieces of auxiliary data, an observer and a slice, and returns a point. Different choices of (u,Σ\Sigma) for the identical physical body — the identical TαβT^{\alpha\beta} field, the identical total four-momentum PμP^\mu = ∫Σ\int_\Sigma TμνT^{\mu\nu}\, dΣν\Sigma_\nu and total angular momentum JμνJ^{\mu\nu} — can and do return different points, and the question this article is built to answer precisely is how different, and under what conditions the difference means something rather than nothing.

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Learn the underlying idea

A variable is a named place for a value. Its letter is a local label: x can mean position in one formula and a data point in another.

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Sources cited in the article section

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