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Physics 131 Final2008

This document provides the instructions for the final exam in Physics 131 on June 6, 2008. It lists the instructor, TA, details for submitting the exam, resources allowed, notation to use, and 4 problems to solve. Problem 1 involves sketching and calculating properties of a torus. Problem 2 involves calculating the frequency shift of light between two observers. Problem 3 involves deriving the geodesic deviation equation. Problem 4 involves calculating the Ricci tensor and solving Einstein's field equations for a 5D metric.

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Ignacio Magaña
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42 views

Physics 131 Final2008

This document provides the instructions for the final exam in Physics 131 on June 6, 2008. It lists the instructor, TA, details for submitting the exam, resources allowed, notation to use, and 4 problems to solve. Problem 1 involves sketching and calculating properties of a torus. Problem 2 involves calculating the frequency shift of light between two observers. Problem 3 involves deriving the geodesic deviation equation. Problem 4 involves calculating the Ricci tensor and solving Einstein's field equations for a 5D metric.

Uploaded by

Ignacio Magaña
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FINAL EXAM, PHYSICS 131, Jun 6, 2008

Instructor: Anthony Zee


TA: Kevin Moore
Please hand your completed exam to Kevin Moore at 5 PM on Monday.
Alternatively, you may email a completed exam to him, or place your exam in
a sealed envelope and place it in his mail box.
You may consult your own class notes, the text by Hartle and the homework
solutions. Do not use other texts or computer algebra systems like Mathematica,
Maple or the symbolic solvers provided by some graphing calculators.
Assume unless otherwise noted that G = c = 1, and that Greek indices
, , . . . run from 0 to 3 while Roman indices i, j, . . . run from 1 to 3.
Problem 1. The torus, or the two-dimensional surface of a donut, has its line
element given by
ds2 = a2 d2 + (b + a sin )2 d2
where a and b are two constants that have dimensions of length and satisfy
a < b.
(a) 5 points Sketch the surface, and identify a, b, and on it.
(b) 5 points Calculate the Christoffel symbols. Hint: most of them vanish.
(c) 10 points Calculate the Riemann curvature tensor. Hint: The tensor
has one component, namely R .
Problem 2. 20 points Consider the line element described by
!
"
ds2 = dt2 + a2 (t) dr2 + r2 d2 + r2 sin2 d2

Suppose we are located at r = 0. A source located at r = R sends light to us at


a frequency . Find the frequency 0 we observe in terms of the function a(t).
Assume that the time scale over which a(t) changes is long compared to 1/ .

Problem 3. Alice and Bob leave from neighboring towns on the same latitude
and fly due south along geodesics. We all know that the separation between
them will change as they move along but will eventually vanish at the South Pole.
In contrast to Euclidean geometry, two parallel straight lines could eventually
intersect. Let us calculate how the separation between two nearby geodesics
changes as we move along the geodesics.
Let x ( ) and y ( ) be two nearby geodesics on a Riemannian manifold. In
other words, they satisfy the two equations:
dx dx
d2 x
+
=0
2
d
d d

(1)

d2 y
dy dy
+

=0
(2)

d 2
d d
(a) 10 points Write y ( ) = x ( ) + & ( ). Show that to first order in & we
have

d2 &
dx dx
dx d&

+
&

+
2
=0
(3)

d 2
d d
d d
(a) 20 points As usual, the covariant derivative of & along the geodesic is
defined by
D&
d&
dx
=
+
&
(4)
D
d
d
2

The covariant second derivative of &, DD&2 , along the geodesic is defined by

D&
the covariant derivative of D&
D along the geodesic, treating D as a vector (of
course.)
Show that
D2 &
dx dx

=
K
&
(5)

D 2
d d
Determine the tensor K . The equation (5) is known as the geodesic deviation equation.
Problem 4. Consider the five-dimensional spacetime defined by
ds2 = e2A(y) (dt2 + dx21 + dx22 + dx23 ) + dy 2
30 points Calculate the Ricci tensor and solve Einsteins field equation in
empty spacetime.

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