Paper detail

A logical treatment of special relativity, with and without faster-than-light observers

There are three goals of this thesis. First: to present a concise yet accessible description of basic mathematical logic and model theory. Second: to develop an axiomatization of special relativity using only two undefined predicates. Ideally, these axioms should be empirically verifiable and supported by a large body of evidence. Finally: to weaken this axiomatization so as to allow for the existence of faster-than-light observers, which are normally excluded from the theory of special relativity. The modifications to the axiom system should be as slight as possible, and should be motivated by the question: what features of the original axiom system preclude the existence of faster-than-light observers?