Characterization of free fall paths by a global or local Desargues property (Q1175637)

The paths of ``free particles'' constitute the kinematic frame for all of physics. Usually, these paths are introduced by stating that in suitable coordinates there is a parametrization such that all of these paths obey the differential equation \(d^ 2x^ a/d\tau^ 2=0\). It should, however, be clear that such a coordinate dependant characterization of the basic elements of physics is in no way satisfying. The authors remedy this fault, giving characterizations of the system of geodesic paths by purely incidence-geometric properties. In accordance with the prominent rôle of the Desargues configuration in the foundations of geometry, it turns out that the Desargues property, in fact the validity of a local version of Desargues' theorem up to errors of third order suffices for the desired characterization. As is well-known, the Desargues property expresses a high degree of homogeneity for the system of paths; in particular a two-dimensional geometry can be embedded into one of higher dimension if and only if it is Desarguesian [cp. \textit{D. Betten} and \textit{C. Horstmann}, Result. Math. 6, 27-35 (1983; Zbl 0532.51020)]. Locally Desarguesian surfaces have been discussed by \textit{L. Bröcker} [Atti Convegno Geom. combinat. Appl. Perugia 1970, 103-111 (1971; Zbl 0227.50011)]. Precisely, the authors prove the following theorem: given an \(n\)-dimensional smooth manifold \(M\), a path structure in \(M\) is inertial if and only if each point of \(M\) has an \(\varepsilon\)-neighbourhood \(U\) such that Desargues' theorem holds in order \(\varepsilon^ 2\) (i.e. up to correction of order \(\varepsilon^ 3\)) whenever all the relevant intersection points of 10 paths lie in \(U\). Here, a path structure is a system of sufficiently smooth curves in \(M\) such that through any given point there is a unique path in each direction. The authors point out that the Desargues property also permits to describe the spacelike geodesics if only the timelike ones are known (without using lightrays).