From Holography to Relativity

Abramson, Nils H., KTH Royal Institute of Technology

doi:10.1117/3.2265060.ch20

Book: The Art and Science of Holography: A Tribute to Emmett Leith and Yuri Denisyuk

Editor(s): H. John Caulfield

Author(s): Nils Abramson

Published: 2004

https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2265060.ch20

Author Affiliations +

Abstract

The holodiagram, a diagram based on a set of ellipses, was designed to simplify the creation and evaluation of holograms of the type introduced by Emmett Leith and Yuri Denisyuk. However, it was soon found that this diagramcould be used inmany other fields of optics and, surprisingly, also in Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Holography with ultrashort pulses—light-in-flight recording by holography—can produce slow-motion pictures of light pulses. However, in such recordings, a spherical light wave appears deformed into one of the ellipsoids of the holodiagram. This occurs because the limited velocity of the light is used for observation in much the same way that the apparent deformations of fast-moving bodies are described in special relativity. The main difference is that in holography, the distance separating the two focal points of the ellipsoids is static, while in relativity it is dynamic and caused by the high velocity of the observer. Using this new graphic approach to relativity, one finds no reason for the Lorentz contraction; rather, one can accept an elongation of the sphere of observation into an ellipsoid of observation.