Introduction to General Relativity

(G4040 - Fall 2012)

Solutions: Problem set 5
Prof. A. Beloborodov
TA: Alex Chen
1. (Schutz, 6.9: 12) Formally we can write,
d
d d
d
=
=a .
d
d d
d
If the geodesic equation is satisfied by a curve parameterized by , then the geodesic equation for the
new parameter a + b is,
a2

dx dx
d2 x
+ a2
= 0.

2
d
d d

We can divide by a2 to recover the original form of the equation proving that is in fact an affine
parameter.
2. (Schutz, 6.9: 13)
(a) A or B being parallel transported along U means that
U A = U (A, + A ) = 0,

U B = U (B , + B ) = 0.

Now lets see what differential equation is obeyed by the inner product of A and B,
(g A B ), = g, A B + g A, B + g A B , .
We want to use somehow the parallel transport condition, so lets multiple by U ,

U (g A B ), = g, U A B g U
A B g A U B .

No notice that we can factorize U A B , being careful to change correctly dummy indices,
U (g A B ), = U A B (g, g g )
, U (g A B ), = U A B g = 0.
The last equality follows if we have a connection that is metric compatible, which is our case.
This proves that the inner product of parallel transported vectors is constant along the curve. In
other words, the derivative of the inner product along the curve is zero.

(b) Lets observe that the geodesic equation is in fact telling as that the tangent vector is parallel
transported along the curve. The geodesic equation for a vector U = dx /d is
dU
+ U U = 0,
d
U x
+ U U = 0.
x
The geodesic path x ( ) is in fact only a function of , so in the previous equation we can factorize
U getting,
U U = 0,
proving that the norm of the tangent vector of a geodesic is constant along the geodesic. If a
geodesic is somewhere spacelike it will remain spacelike, similar for null or timelike geodesics.
3. (Schutz, 6.9: 14) From equation 6.8 and the previous problem, we conclude that for geodesics the
proper distance between 2 points, on the curve, is a constant times the difference of the parameter
between those 2 points. (Since by assumption the curve is a geodesic we can assume that is itself an
affine parameter).
4. (a) For the 2-Sphere the only non-zero Christoffel symbols are:

sin cos ,

= cot .

The divergence of a vector field A = (cos , sin cos ) is,

A = A, +
A ,

which is,
A = sin sin sin + cot cos ,
(b) The geodesic equations are:
dx dx
d2 x
+
= 0.
2
d
d d
Therefore the geodesic equations on the 2-sphere become:
00

= ( )2 sin cos ,
00

= cot ,
so we see that the curve { =constant,() =constant} satisfy the geodesic equation.
(c) The geodesic equations for = 0 constant, reduce to
0

0 = ( )2 sin 0 cos 0 ,
00

= 0.
If sin 0 cos 0 6= 0 the only solution for is ( ) = 0 constant. Of course this is a degenerate
geodesic joining a point with itself. On the contrary, if sin 0 cos 0 = 0, 0 can be 0 or /2 or .
For 0 = {0, } we have degenerate solutions, for 0 = /2 we get that the equator is a geodesic,
which is true.