Relativistic positioning systems: the emission coordinates

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/23/24/012MaRDI QIDQ3419009zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Bartolomé Coll, José María Pozo

Publication date 5 February 2007

Published in Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0606044

zbMATH Keywords

causalityemission coordinatesglobal navigation systemsnormalized emission framenull coframesrelativistic approach

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10)

Abstract: This paper introduces some general properties of the gravitational metric and the natural basis of vectors and covectors in 4-dimensional emission coordinates. Emission coordinates are a class of space-time coordinates defined and generated by 4 emitters (satellites) broadcasting their proper time by means of electromagnetic signals. They are a constitutive ingredient of the simplest conceivable relativistic positioning systems. Their study is aimed to develop a theory of these positioning systems, based on the framework and concepts of general relativity, as opposed to introducing `relativistic effects' in a classical framework. In particular, we characterize the causal character of the coordinate vectors, covectors and 2-planes, which are of an unusual type. We obtain the inequality conditions for the contravariant metric to be Lorentzian, and the non-trivial and unexpected identities satisfied by the angles formed by each pair of natural vectors. We also prove that the metric can be naturally split in such a way that there appear 2 parameters (scalar functions) dependent exclusively on the trajectory of the emitters, hence independent of the time broadcast, and 4 parameters, one for each emitter, scaling linearly with the time broadcast by the corresponding satellite, hence independent of the others.

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Cited in

(14)

• Position determination and strong field parallax effects for photon emitters in the Schwarzschild spacetime
• Relativistic localizing processes bespeak an inevitable projective geometry of spacetime
• Conformal proper times according to the Woodhouse causal axiomatics of relativistic spacetimes
• Discrete relativistic positioning systems
• Four causal classes of Newtonian frames
• Some improvements on relativistic positioning systems
• MAPPING CARTESIAN COORDINATES INTO EMISSION COORDINATES: SOME TOY MODELS
• Emission versus Fermi coordinates: applications to relativistic positioning systems
• Positioning systems in Minkowski spacetime: from emission to inertial coordinates
• Emission coordinates in Minkowski space-time
• Using global positioning systems to test extensions of general relativity
• Relativistic positioning systems in flat space-time: the location problem
• The covariance of GPS coordinates and frames
• Extended Fermi coordinates

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