Astrophysics (Index)About

relativistic effect

(a substantial fraction of the speed of light)

The term relativistic effect refers to the difference between what happens according to relativity versus what happens according to models of the physical process that ignore relativity. This can simply mean the consequences of the Lorentz transformation in a mechanics calculation otherwise handled by Newton's laws, but the term is typically used in chemistry (particularly the plural, relativistic effects), comparing chemistry based on quantum mechanics and that which also includes some of the consequences of relativity. Such effects also affect spectroscopy and physics involving the interplay of particles. Models, which invariably must include simplifications, often can ignore relativity without affecting the result significantly: including relativity can complicate the models to a great degree. When the effects are too significant to be ignored, often only some of the effects are taken into account, and sometimes a simple, heuristic model is used to approximate the effects (e.g., in the form of a correction term).


(physics,chemistry,quantum mechanics,relativity)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativistic_quantum_chemistry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity
https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/R/relativistic_effects.html
https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Electricity_and_Magnetism/Essential_Graduate_Physics_-_Classical_Electrodynamics_(Likharev)/09%3A_Special_Relativity/9.02%3A_Relativistic_Kinematic_Effects
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/646114/why-do-relativistic-effects-come-into-play-when-dealing-with-superheavy-atoms
https://s3.smu.edu/dedman/catco/research/relativistic.html
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=0bf99ad0bd054334c4e8dd5a9d2192ece6d512e7
https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.00775

Referenced by pages:
fine structure
relativistic energy
relativistic momentum
Schwarzschild radius (RS)

Index