Alexander N. Grigorenko
Alexander N. Grigorenko | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Canonical distance form; geometric formulation of geodesics in classical physics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Manchester |
Alexander N. Grigorenko is a physicist and a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. Alongside experimental work in condensed-matter physics, plasmonics and magnetism, he has authored foundational theoretical papers reformulating the notions of distance and geodesic motion in classical physics. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
In the paper Geodesics and distance in classical physics (posted to arXiv in 2004 and published in Physics Essays), Grigorenko formulates geodesics on a manifold in terms of the parallel transfer of a particle state vector transformed by local Lorentz and Yang–Mills symmetry groups. He argues that this construction introduces a canonical one-form whose eigenvalues define distance on the manifold, and he proposes an action built from this "canonical distance form" to describe classical particles with spin. He extended this line of work in Particles, Fields and a Canonical Distance Form (arXiv, 2014).
These foundational papers propose an alternative geometric language for distance and motion and lie outside the standard textbook treatment of classical mechanics and relativity, which is why the work is catalogued among heterodox contributions.