A timelike extension of Fermat's principle in general relativity and applications (Q1384669)

The authors consider a variational principle whose solutions are the timelike geodesics between a point and a timelike curve in a Lorentzian manifold. This variational principle is somewhat analogous to Fermat's principle where lightlike rather than timelike geodesics are to be determined. Among other things, the authors use a Sobolev space setting to state sufficient conditions under which the existence of at least one solution of the variational principle is guaranteed.