Physics in Covariance

A Crash Course in the General Theory of Relativity

by

Moataz H. Emam

State University of New York at Cortland

Zewail City of Science and Technology
Book:
Covariant Physics
From Classical Mechanics,
to General Relativity and Beyond

Moataz H. Emam

http://tinyurl.com/y2krjqh2
ps: More downloadable stuff at the end
What is Covariance?
• The laws of physics are invariant under coordinate transformations.
• Example: Newton’s second law:

• In Cartesian:
What is Covariance?
• Consider polar:

• Correct:
What is Covariance?
• The plan:

• To write the laws of physics in a language that works in any coordinate

system, even if it is in special or general relativity

• To define “the metric” of coordinates, from which everything (almost) is found

This is the Covariance of Physics.

Euclidean Coordinate Systems
• Cartesian Coordinates:

• New language:

i = 1, 2, 3
Euclidean Coordinate Systems
• Cylindrical Coordinates:
Euclidean Coordinate Systems
• Spherical Coordinates:
Euclidean Coordinate Systems
• There are many others
• (all orthogonal)
The Metric
The Metric
• Cylindrical:

• Spherical:

• General:
Vectors and the index notation

• Now define:

• Such that: Einstein:

• Note upper and lower indices

Vectors and the index notation
• Rules: Summation indices appear twice and ONLY twice in each
term

• So

• Correct:

• Which is
Vectors and the index notation
• Continue with dot product:

• Define:

• Such that

• The metric (Cartesian) becomes:

Vectors and the index notation
• Equivalent:

• Define:

• Such that:
Vectors and the index notation
• Another type of indices: the free index

• Equivalent to
Derivatives and the index notation
• The gradient:

• The divergence:

• The Laplacian:
Vectors in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• The metric in Cartesian was:

• The metric in non-Cartesian:

• The metric tensor gij is diagonal only for orthogonal coordinates.

• Vectors become: such that

Vectors in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• The idea is:

• Any physical law in Cartesian Coordinates can now be written in non-

Cartesian Coordinates using the so-called minimal substitution:

i.e. it becomes COVARIANT

Vectors in non-Cartesian Coordinates

• Upper and lower now are different:

• The dot product is now updated:

• Important: Orthogonality:
Derivatives in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• Time to wake up!
• Consider parallel transport: in Cartesian
coordinates nothing changes!
Derivatives in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• Components change even
though it is the same vector

• Target: Find the correction to

the components in any
coordinate system
Derivatives in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• Derivatives involve parallel transport, because they involve
subtracting two vectors:

• This formula works only in Cartesian coordinates!! We need a

covariant derivative that works in any coordinate system.
Derivatives in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• In non-Cartesian we have to correct the transported vectors component
by component:

• Such that
Derivatives in non-Cartesian Coordinates

• Hence:

• The Christoffel symbols! (What types of indices do you see?)

Derivatives in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• A new symbol:

• You can show that:

Note: some books use the notation:

Derivatives in non-Cartesian Coordinates
• Important:

• Just give me the metric and I will tell you how vectors parallel
transport. Note: the Christoffel symbols vanish for the Cartesian
metric.
Tensors
• Are multidirectional generalizations of vectors:
Tensors
• In the index language the components of tensors can have arbitrary
indices
• Rank (p, q)

• Rank (2,0) and (1,2):

• Vectors are rank (1,0) and (0,1):

• Scalars are rank zero! f

Tensors
• Not any set of numbers make a tensor!
• Just like not any set of numbers make a vector.
• Vectors must transform from one coordinate system to another
following a specific set of rules.
• Example: Transforming a vector by rotation
The components change

Not the magnitude

Tensors
• If we define the transformation (rotation) matrix

• Vectors transform by or as matrices

• Orthogonality here too

Tensors
• Generally

• Applicable to transforming from one coordinate system to another

• Example: becomes
Tensors
• General rank tensors transform in the same way:
Back to physics
• Define

• What you end up with is a covariant formula, one that works in any
coordinate system
Back to physics
• In mechanics:
• Cartesian non-Cartesian
Back to physics
• Newton’s law again:

• Cartesian:

• Non-Cartesian:

• Physical interpretation: Inertial forces!

Back to physics
• Example
of non-trivial tensors in mechanics:
• The moment of inertia tensor:
Back to physics
• Non-trivial tensors in mechanics:

• Stress and strain tensors

• Original Hooke’s law

Galilean Covariance
• Consider
Galilean Covariance
• Can we write this in the tensor language? Yes, but only if we add time!
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Einstein’s postulates:
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Based on the postulates you can prove that different inertial observers
will disagree on distances dx, dy, dz, and will also disagree on
durations of time dt. Just like observers in classical systems will
disagree on distances!

• HOWEVER turns out they will agree on the quantity

• i.e. this quantity is covariant. All coordinate observers will agree on it

Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Important property of
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Side note:
• Depending on what book you read, some authors define

• In this case:
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Minkowski said:

• “Wait a second, this looks like a (weird) four dimensional metric!!”

• Define

• PLUS

• Such that
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Or we can write (similar to )

to 4D spacetime
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• We can also write
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Everything we did before is now updated to 4D
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• But that was for Minkowski-Cartesian; for Minkowski-non-Cartesian
we can use

• Plus
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• What about tensor transformations? Rotations still work fine:
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Galilean transformations don’t work, they violate the postulates. They
have to be replaced with the Lorentz transformations:
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Tensors now transform 4-dimensionally (rotations and/or Lorentz)

• Generally:
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Specially covariant mechanics
• Using the fact that all observers will agree on the metric

• We can show things like

• Where is the proper time, and t is the coordinate time

Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• We define 4D mechanics:
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• We define 4D mechanics:
Special Covariance (Special Relativity)
• Invariants: Massive particles:

• Massless particles:
General Covariance (General Relativity)
• Galilean principle of equivalence

• Einstein’s principle of equivalence:

• Accelerating reference frames and gravity are equivalent!

General Covariance (General Relativity)
• Gedanken experiment I
General Covariance (General Relativity)
• Gedanken experiment II
General Covariance (General Relativity)
• This is a local effect.

• The elevator must be very small

General Covariance (General Relativity)
• The mathematics is exactly equivalent to that of curved spaces!!!
• Including a metric that defines a grid on the space
• A general curved space or spacetime is locally flat, i.e. locally specially covariant
• In a curved space the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line
General Covariance (General Relativity)
• Hence Einstein jumped to the conclusions:
• We live in a spacetime that can be curved because of the presence of
matter/energy
• Objects do not curve in space because of gravity, but because they are
following the shortest distance between two points on a curved spacetime!
General Covariance (General Relativity)
• A curved spacetime “manifold” is still charted by a metric of the form

• Except that now can be anything. It doesn’t even need to be

diagonal (as long as it satisfies a set of equations we will discuss later)
General Covariance (General Relativity)
• The shortest distance between 2 points in any space or spacetime is
given by the Geodesic Equation:

• In Euclidean mechanics this is exactly the statement a = 0.

• Lambda is a timelike parameter called the affine parameter, could be t or tau or some
linear combination. It parametrizes the trajectory of the free particle
A (VERY) simple example
• For local observer O’ the ball she holds is at rest
• Its position 4-vector of the ball is

Locally everything is flat and SR is in effect

A (VERY) simple example
• For coordinate observer O, the position vector is

• Both observers will agree on ds2

A (VERY) simple example
• What if we calculate the Geodesic equation of
A (VERY) simple example
• Major conclusions
Metric outside a spherically symmetric mass M
• Schwarzschild:

gives
Metric outside a spherically symmetric mass M
• Note:

is a problem!
Metric outside a spherically symmetric mass M

• If radius of spherical mass is greater than rs then no problem.

Metric outside a spherically symmetric mass M

• If radius is less than the Schwarzschild radius we get a Black Hole!

• The sphere of radius rs is called the Event Horizon
Let’s do some Math
• Objects moving on geodesics in any spacetime have constants of
motion
• They are found as follows:
• If the metric does not depend on a given parameter, say t, then this
means there is a constant of motion associated with this parameter

• No t means energy is conserved

• No x means momentum in the x direction is conserved
• No angle means angular momentum in the plane of the angle is conserved
Light falling along radial geodesics
• Now, consider a beam of light moving on a Schwarzschild geodesic
• For light

• Which leads to (using the Schwarzschild metric)

where
Light falling along radial geodesics
• Solving this for time

• Diverges for:

• Starting on the event horizon r1 = rs

• Ending on the event horizon r2 = rs
• Starts inside the event horizon r1 < rs
NO ESCAPE!
What about falling people?
• Schwarzschild does not depend on t
• Hence an object falling into a black hole conserves its energy
• Now, consider an observer O’ falling, locally this observer sees

• But someone watching (observer O) from far away sees the full
Schwarzschild metric (minus the angular parts)
What about falling people?
• But both observers will agree on ds2 so:
What about falling people?
• Energy conservation requires
What about falling people?
• Solving this for t gives

• Which diverges for

• Conclusion: the far away coordinate observer will never see the
falling local observer cross the event horizon, even though the falling
observer will just feel nothing and cross normally. Also an observer
starting from inside the event horizon can never escape!

Moral of the story: Please don’t fall in a black hole.

Other geodesic solutions; orbits
• The geodesic equations give the particle trajectories
• Numerical solutions lead to things like the precession of the perihelion
of Mercury
Other geodesic solutions; fly by
• Or the bending of light as it passes near a massive object
Riemann and Einstein
• Riemann developed a precise definition of spacetime curvature as
follows

• Remember parallel transport?

Riemann and Einstein
• Riemann found
Riemann and Einstein
• The Riemann curvature tensor

• Ricci tensor

• Ricci scalar
Riemann and Einstein
• Einstein needed to generalize

• On the right hand side Einstein postulated the energy momentum

tensor should work
Riemann and Einstein
• Now the energy momentum tensor is conserved

• So we need something on the left that also satisfies this, the only
curvature combination that does is the Einstein tensor
Riemann and Einstein
• Hence the Einstein Gravitational Field Equations are:

• Where the Einstein constant is

because it gives in the low curvature (gravity) limit

Riemann and Einstein
• The Einstein vacuum field equations: Contracting both sides with
inverse metric

• Gives

• If there is no matter then which generalizes

How about even more math?
• Let’s find Schwarzschild. Use the vacuum equations
• The most general spherically symmetric metric is

• Calculate

• Then use
Finding Schwarzschild
Finding Schwarzschild
Finding Schwarzschild
Another (quick) example, rotating black holes
The Kerr metric:
Another (quick) example, rotating black holes
 Thank you very much

My book again: http://tinyurl.com/y2krjqh2

Online mathematica notebooks (not mine):
Interactive book: http://tinyurl.com/y3bbyave
Calculates curvature stuff: http://tinyurl.com/y3sh849c
Calculates the geodesic equations: http://tinyurl.com/y473swfo