A relativistic gravity train

DOI10.1007/S10714-017-2267-YMaRDI QIDQ1787939zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Edward Parker

Publication date 5 October 2018

Published in General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.04026

zbMATH Keywords

exact solutionsideal fluidBuchdahl's theoremrelativistic gravity train

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Exact solutions to problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C15) Macroscopic interaction of the gravitational field with matter (hydrodynamics, etc.) (83C55)

Abstract: A nonrelativistic particle released from rest at the edge of a ball of uniform charge density or mass density oscillates with simple harmonic motion. We consider the relativistic generalizations of these situations where the particle can attain speeds arbitrarily close to the speed of light; generalizing the electrostatic and gravitational cases requires special and general relativity, respectively. We find exact closed-form relations between the position, proper time, and coordinate time in both cases, and find that they are no longer harmonic, with oscillation periods that depend on the amplitude. In the highly relativistic limit of both cases, the particle spends almost all of its proper time near the turning points, but almost all of the coordinate time moving through the bulk of the ball. Buchdahl's theorem imposes nontrivial constraints on the general-relativistic case, as a ball of given density can only attain a finite maximum radius before collapsing into a black hole. This article is intended to be pedagogical, and should be accessible to those who have taken an undergraduate course in general relativity.

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Cites work

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Cited in

(5)

• A fresh look at the concept of a relativistic oscillator
• The relativistic gravity train
• Radiation of relativistic ‘harmonic’ oscillator
• Riemannian manifolds dual to static spacetimes
• Higher Fano manifolds and rational surfaces

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