Two-point boundary value problems in relativistic dynamics (Q1358495)
From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
---|---|---|---|
English | Two-point boundary value problems in relativistic dynamics |
scientific article |
Statements
Two-point boundary value problems in relativistic dynamics (English)
0 references
14 July 1997
0 references
The paper starts with an action functional for the motion of a test particle in a Lorentzian manifold \((M,g)\), composed of a velocity term, a Maxwell field term, and a Newton potential term. An extremal curve is taken as the projection of a geodesic in a Kaluza-Klein manifold, which is a bundle over \(M\) and is equipped with a bundle metric composed of \(g\), a Maxwell potential, and the Newton potential. It is shown that there exists an extremal with prescribed boundary points if \((M,g)\) is globally hyperbolic and some other mild conditions are satisfied. The proof uses arguments of variational calculus, homotopy, cohomology, and the theory of causal structures.
0 references
test particle motion
0 references
boundary value problem
0 references
Lorentzian manifold
0 references