CHARGED PARTICLES AND THE ELECTRO-MAGNETIC FIELD IN NONINERTIAL FRAMES OF MINKOWSKI SPACE-TIME I: ADMISSIBLE 3 + 1 SPLITTINGS OF MINKOWSKI SPACE-TIME AND THE NONINERTIAL REST FRAMES

By using the 3 + 1 point of view and parametrized Minkowski theories we develop the theory of noninertial frames in Minkowski space-time. The transition from a noninertial frame to another one is a gauge transformation connecting the respective notions of instantaneous three-space (clock synchronization convention) and of the three-coordinates inside them. As a particular case we get the extension of the inertial rest-frame instant form of dynamics to the noninertial rest-frame one. We show that every isolated system can be described as an external decoupled noncovariant canonical center of mass (described by frozen Jacobi data) carrying a pole–dipole structure: the invariant mass and an effective spin. Moreover we identify the constraints eliminating the internal three-center of mass inside the instantaneous three-spaces. In the case of the isolated system of positive-energy scalar particles with Grassmann-valued electric charges plus the electro-magnetic field, we obtain both Maxwell equations and their Hamiltonian description in noninertial frames. Then by means of a noncovariant decomposition we define the noninertial radiation gauge and we find the form of the noncovariant Coulomb potential. We identify the coordinate-dependent relativistic inertial potentials and we show that they have the correct Newtonian limit. In the second paper we will study properties of Maxwell equations in noninertial frames like the wrap-up effect and the Faraday rotation in astrophysics. Also the 3 + 1 description without coordinate-singularities of the rotating disk and the Sagnac effect will be given, with added comments on pulsar magnetosphere and on a relativistic extension of the Earth-fixed coordinate system.