Eikonal approximation to 5D wave equations as geodesic motion in a curved 4D spacetime (Q2487280)

Since the eikonal approximation naturally lowers the dimension of the differential equations describing the fields by one, the eikonal approximation to the five-dimensional field equations results in four dimensional differential equations. In the presence of a non-trivial dielectric structure of the medium, the four dimensional field equations resulting from the eikonal approximation can describe geodesic motion in four dimensional spacetime without the necessity of adding motion to the medium. The authors emphasize that the underlying manifold, on which the fields are defined, is a flat Cartesian space, but that the dynamically induced trajectories are curved, and can be described by the geodesics of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. This result forms the basic motivation for studying the generalized dynamics of Stueckelberg in this context. The authors first derive the relation between the eikonal approximation to the Maxwell wave equations in an inhomogeneous anisotropic medium and geodesic motion in a three dimensional Riemannian manifold, where there are two metrics, one for each admissible polarization mode, using a method which identifies the symplectic structure of the corresponding mechanics. The canonical momenta for each of the corresponding geodesics have the same direction, but differ in magnitude. The authors then apply an analogous method to the five dimensional generalization of Maxwell theory required by the gauge invariance of Stueckelberg's covariant classical and quantum dynamics to demonstrate, in the eikonal approximation, the existence of geodesic motion for the flow of mass in a four dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold. These results provide a foundation for the geometrical optics of the five dimensional radiation theory and establish a model in which there is mass flow along geodesics. Finally, the authors discuss the interesting case of relativistic quantum theory in an anisotropic medium as well. In this case the eikonal approximation to the relativistic quantum mechanical current coincides with the geodesic flow governed by the pseudo-Riemannian metric obtained from the eikonal approximation to solutions of the Stueckelberg-Schrödinger equation. This construction provides a model for an underlying quantum mechanical structure for classical dynamical motion along geodesics on a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. The locally symplectic structure which emerges is that of Stueckelberg's covariant mechanics on this manifold.