The arrival time brachistochrones in general relativity. (Q1608535)

The authors study brachistochrones within general relativity where the time of arrival as measured by an observer at the endpoint of the curve is extremal. This is in contrast to previous work on general relativistic brachistochrones for time travel where the proper time is extremal. The authors study the variational problem for stationary spacetimes and give a second order differential equation for the arrival time brachistochrones. Results on the existence and multiplicity of travel time brachistochrones are obtained from the variational principles. The Schwarzschild spacetime is considered as an example.