A general-relativistic Fermat principle for extended light sources and extended receivers (Q1807284)

The authors prove a Fermat principle for the light rays joining a spacelike submanifold \(P\) with a timelike submanifold \(\Gamma\) in a fixed space-time \({\mathcal M}\). Among all the lightlike curves from \(P\) to \(\Gamma\), the lightlike geodesics perpendicular to \(P\) and spatially perpendicular to \(\Gamma\) are characterized by stationary arrival time, defined with the help of a time function on the arrival manifold \(\Gamma\). Moreover, it is evaluated the second variation of the arrival time at a geodesic and it is characterized by a Morse index theorem.